


Enchanting

by Holly_Batali



Series: Enchanting [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Coffee, College AU, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Special Operations Squad - Freeform, Squad Levi - Freeform, sassy and independent petra
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-27
Updated: 2014-02-20
Packaged: 2018-01-10 06:06:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 37,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1156032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Holly_Batali/pseuds/Holly_Batali
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>College AU. She saw him at a glance across campus; somehow it escalated from there to tutoring, coffee, pizza and autopsies (though not necessarily in that order). Rivetra (LevixPetra).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> Introduction
> 
> "All I can say is it was enchanting to meet you."
> 
>  
> 
> "I was never in love with someone else,  
> I never had somebody waiting on me,  
> 'cause you were all of my dreams come true.  
> All I can say is it was enchanting to meet you.  
> Oh I was so enchanted to meet you…"

"This paper is going to murder me. It's going to eat me alive."

"It's not that bad."

"We have one week to write a 12-page commentary essay on the development of the current criminal justice system... in addition to everything else from other professors. I think it's safe to say that this paper is gonna hurt like a—"

"Well maybe if you'd stop whining and start writing—"

Petra sighed and tuned out Auruo and Gunter's bickering. Professor Smith's class was turning out to be much more challenging than any of them had anticipated, but they were all determined to do well; and she knew that for all their complaints, they were going to be spending long sleepless nights researching and writing to make this paper the best they could. She would as well—Petra had worked hard to get where she was, and she was going to make the very most of her opportunities.

"The way they bicker, you'd think they're married." Petra chuckled at Erd's exasperated tone.

"You'd think so," she agreed, turning her attention back to her sandwich. It was a beautiful day on campus, and she was savoring the warm breeze and cool sunshine of the oncoming fall season. The semester had only started a few weeks ago, but summer was already nearly gone. The leaves were starting to darken and the mornings were getting steadily colder. For Petra, this meant making the very most of the time she had left to spend outdoors. She and the others had agreed to eat outside every day that they could.

"Alright, that's enough!" Erd set down his lunch, moving to get between Auruo and Gunter. "Break it up, you two."

Petra laughed at their half-hearted protests, then as they turned and ganged up on Erd, trying to pin him to the ground. She polished off the rest of her lunch and then pulled out her notes to study for the rest of the break before her next class. As she reviewed the ins and outs of criminal law, she tuned out the background noises of her friends' squabbling.

Eventually, her attention wandered, and she glanced about the open campus, taking note of the students and professors wandering the grounds. One or two she recognized, but the majority she had never seen before. They made for decent people-watching, though—it was easy to pick out the freshmen, running around and juggling coffee and notebooks, eager to make good impressions and do well. They upperclassmen were more relaxed, taking their day at a slower pace, confident and self-assured in their knowledge of the campus layout and the tricks they would employ to pass their classes. The professors hurried through the masses, on their way to classes or meetings, off to write up tests and syllabi and share their 'new student horror stories' with each other.

There was one student in particular that stood out—she wasn't sure if it was his height (or rather the lack thereof) or the lack of a backpack or anything to mark him as a student, but she found her gaze drawn to him nonetheless. He was rather small, perhaps just taller than her own 5'2. That didn't seem to bother him, though. He stood against the brick wall of one of the campus buildings with an air of... not quite superiority; confidence, perhaps? Petra couldn't quite put her finger on it, but she knew that any arrogance this man had was surely well-deserved. He seemed almost dangerous.

He had deep-set eyes with nearly-black bags beneath them, and neatly-cut black hair. She couldn't see his eye color from where she was, but they seemed to almost shine. He wore simple black slacks, a dark gray t-shirt, biker boots, and a dark red jacket that fit in well with the rest of the students, but somehow she doubted that he was one; he blended in well enough for a cursory glance, but there was something… off.

She heard a voice call from across campus, but she couldn't make out any words; the man's head snapped to the source and Petra found herself doing the same, blinking in surprise. Professor Erwin Smith, her criminal justice teacher, was jogging over to the not-student, laughing sheepishly. The man scowled and pushed off the wall, saying something that Petra couldn't quite make out. Professor Smith laughed and patted the man's shoulder, making him scowl deeper and shrug off the older man's hand. Petra was struck by the painfully obvious height difference. They started walking off together, the shorter man saying something to Professor Smith, brow furrowed. The professor nodded and replied; Petra wished she could hear what they were saying. There was something about this man that drew her in, like a magnet.

Almost as if she had yelled it for the world to hear, the man's eyes found hers, locking on. She wanted to look away, mortified at being caught so openly staring, but found that she couldn't. He held her gaze for a few more beats and then looked away. Petra continued to stare after him, disappointed in herself for not finding out something about this man, some small tidbit to take away from this odd encounter.

"…ght, Petra? Petra?"

"Hm?" Petra turned to Erd, who had Auruo and Gunter both pinned to the ground; while she had been staring at the stranger across campus, they had continued their impromptu wrestling match, and (unsurprisingly) Erd had won. All three of them looked up at her expectantly; she must have missed whatever conversation they had just had. "What was that?"

"I said 'we should get together this week and brainstorm for that paper'," Erd repeated.

She nodded vigorously. "That sounds like a great idea! Does Thursday work for everyone?" After hammering out the details for their study session, the group went their separate ways, and as Petra walked away, adjusting the bag over her shoulders, all thoughts of the man from earlier were pushed to the back of her mind.


	2. In Which Petra is Pleasantly Surprised

Chapter 1  
_"Your eyes whispered "have we met?"_

\--

Despite her self-assurances that this was just another essay, one of hundreds that she had written, Petra was having trouble with this one. It was more an analysis than an argument, and therein lay her problem—Petra could argue plenty well, she could argue and sass until she was blue in the face if she needed to. But to write a 12-page analysis of the criminal justice system? What could she possibly do that would set hers apart from all those in the class that everybody else was writing? What could she do to make hers shine, to make it interesting to read through? She was stumped, and Auruo, Erd, and Gunter were out of ideas too; if anything, they were in the same place.

Petra sighed and ran a hand through her hair and she deleted the introduction she had sketchily typed up. _There is absolutely nothing I have written that is worth saving. My life is a tragedy._ She glanced at the clock on the library wall; 10:45. It was about time to get going for class. She had her criminal justice class at eleven, and hopefully she would get some kind of help or inspiration; or divine intervention, she wished wryly. She packed up her bag and headed out of the library and off to class.

She had classes until two o'clock, and Professor Smith had his office hours right after that, so she was hoping to get some help from him while she could. _It certainly can't hurt._

Once Petra was finished with her classes, she made her way to Professor Smith's office; his class that day hadn't helped Petra at all. If anything, she had left more confused than when she had gone in. She sighed irritably as she pushed the 'fourth floor' button on the elevator panel; she didn't really want to hammer out details of her essay with her professor, but she would do whatever it took to do well on this essay and in this class. She would graduate at the top of her major, just like Erd, Gunter, and Auruo would. They had promised each other, jokingly referring to themselves as the "elite". They all had high aspirations, and it was impossible to achieve those dreams and goals if they didn't work as hard as they possibly could now. _I've worked damn hard to get here. I'm not giving up now!_

She was so preoccupied with her thoughts that she almost ran straight into a fellow student standing outside of Professor Smith's office. She jerked back with a small strangled yelp. "Sorry," she mumbled, standing up against the wall. Professor Smith's door was closed and the lights were out; he must have been running late. She snuck a glance at the boy she'd almost run into and did a double-take. _It's him!_ It was the not-student from the other day, the one who had been walking with Professor Smith, the one who had caught her attention.

He seemed to have remembered her as well; he was leaning up against the wall with his hands in his jacket pockets, one foot braced against the wall behind him and staring sideways at her unabashedly. Petra felt embarrassed; he obviously remembered her staring at him. As mortified as she was though, she wouldn't let it show—it was perfectly natural to be curious, and she had nothing to be ashamed of.

"Are you waiting for Professor Smith, too?" she asked, starting up a conversation. She regretting not figuring out anything about him when she first saw him; she wasn't known for making the same mistake twice.

He finally broke eye contact (and what eye he had, a narrow icy blue) and huffed. "Yeah."

Petra nodded and readjusted the strap on her messenger bag. "Right." So much for starting a conversation. She took another glance at him out of the corner of her eye—he didn't have a backpack this time either, though he was carrying some papers under his arm. He seemed impatient and yet almost …resigned? "What class are you here for?" She asked, mentally smacking herself as his gaze snapped to hers, his irritation not leaving his eyes.

He was silent for a moment, then answered, "'m not really here for a class. Just got some crap to drop off for him."

A TA, maybe? "Oh." She nodded again, feeling almost like a bobble head.

"…You?"

She jerked a little in surprise; he was actually keeping the conversation going! "Criminal Justice 212, History and Ethics," she blurted out. _Tell him the section number and time while you're at it, why don't you? Geez._

He smirked; "right. Whadya need help with?"

"Oh, um; I'm trying to write a paper for it right now," she babbled, playing with her jacket sleeves. "It's a commentary on the development of the current criminal justice system. I'm… I'm having trouble making it sound like it was written by a human being, and not Wikipedia," she admitted sheepishly.

He snorted in amusement, and Petra grimaced in embarrassment. _So much for 'taking something away from this encounter'. I guess I'm just hella good at rambling. Way to go, Ral. Way to go._

There was silence for a few more long, terse moments. "Lemme see it."

Petra's head snapped up. "Whut?"

The man made a soft "tch" sound and repeated, "lemme see it; I'm the closest thing to a TA Erwin's got, and I know the subject material almost as well as he does."

"Oh, um, okay…" Petra rummaged through her bag, rifling through syllabi, schedules, and handouts before yanking out the pathetic bare bones of her essay with a triumphant exclamation. She handed it over to the man next to her, who took it and began scanning it over at an alarming pace. Petra awkwardly played with her sleeve cuffs as he read, feeling oddly self-conscious about her writing as she waited.

When he was done, the short black-haired man put the pages back in order and motioned her over; she awkwardly shuffled over to his side. He pointed to one of her opening paragraphs. "Right here, you should start branching out a bit. This is a commentary, not a summary, so say what you think, not what you read. Throw in some observations and opinions, not just facts. Here," he pointed to a section on the second page, "and here," another spot on the third, "you're just parroting the textbook. Creatively paraphrased, I'll give you that, but it's just reiterating what everyone in the class already knows."

He continued to point out shortcomings and give suggestions, and Petra found herself becoming more and more inspired, jotting down some notes in the margins of what she wanted to add and remove. The man seemed to be more relaxed now, speaking freely and gesturing with his hands to emphasize his points.

"Someone made a friend."

They both jerked in surprise (though to be honest, it was more that Petra squawked and flailed backwards and the not-quite-TA's eyes snapped to the new arrival, twisting his body to face the newcomer.

"Professor Smith!" Petra blurted out, surprised, but the older man's eyes were on his not-TA, eyebrows raised in amusement.

"Oh piss off, Erwin," the shorter man snapped, irritated. Petra blinked in surprise at his tone; she'd never heard anyone talk to a teacher like that!

The Criminal Justice professor didn't seem offended, though. He just smirked asked, "did you bring them?"

The short man scowled. "Of course I did. One of us needs to be able to remember simple things like the materials you need for your job. You're going senile, old man."

Professor Smith just laughed. "I'm not that old, Levi, give me a break." Levi, huh… He took the papers that Levi shoved at his chest and thanked him. His eyes slid over to Petra. "Ah, Petra Ral, from 212, right?"

"Yes!"

"Sorry I'm so late. Did you need any help?"

"Ah! Actually, Levi already straightened out my problem," she admitted with a sheepish smile.

"Is that so?" Professor Smith mumbled, his eyebrows raising and his eyes sliding to Levi, who scowled and flipped him off. He smiled and turned back to Petra. "I'm happy to hear it! Don't be shy though, if you need more help!"

Petra smiled. "I won't! Thank you!" She turned to leave, but paused and turned back. "Thanks, Levi," she said with a smile. "You're a life-saver!"

Levi's scowl disappeared with a sigh. "Sure thing."

Petra's smile got wider and she turned to leave, walking down the hallway back to the elevator that she arrived in nearly an hour ago, feeling immensely glad that she had decided to come to Professor Smith's office hour after all.


	3. In Which We Meet Petra's Roommate

Chapter 2

_"I'm wonderstruck, blushing all the way home."_

\--

After her impromptu study session with Levi, Petra rushed to the library, whipped out her laptop, and outlined the rest of her essay, going through and making all of the changes that she'd scribbled into the margins of her printed copy. Before she knew it, she had a full 10 pages written out, 10 pages that she was genuinely happy with. She snuck a glance at the clock as she saved her essay and emailed it to herself (just in case) and for the second time that day did a double-take. _6:55?!_ She hurriedly packed up her things (how did her papers manage to spread out over the whole table?) and hustled out of the library, making her way to the bus stop just outside of the back entrance of the library and barely making the 7:00 southbound.

Petra breathed a sigh of relief as she boarded and sat down; it was about dinner-time, maybe she would pick something up before heading home. _It is my turn to do dinner…_ Petra got off five minutes later and transferred buses, her mind occupied with dinner options. _Pizza is always a safe bet… but we had pizza the other night, when she used that coupon. Hm…_ Another five minutes, and Petra exited the bus, walking right past her apartment complex to the restaurant on the other side of the street, deciding that a seafood lasagna would do nicely for the night.

She was in luck; there were already some made and in the warmer, ready to order. She payed, collected, and was on her way in less than five minutes _I love The Legion. There is no better food in the world._ The lasagna pan was pleasantly warm in her hands as she made her way across the street and up the stairs to the second floor, readjusting the pan into her left hand so she could open the door with her right. "I'm home!" she called out, dropping her bag by the door and setting the lasagna pan on the bar counter. "Hello?" she slid her arms out of her jacket as she moved through the apartment, tossing it through her bedroom door and onto her bed as she walked past it on her way to the back bedroom. "Hey," she called out, knocking on the door. "Are you home?" When there was no answer, she opened the door and let herself in.

The second bedroom was always a mess—there were piles of clothes on the floor, papers taped and pinned to the walls and ceiling, with string and post-its connecting them, notes scribbled everywhere. Pictures of corpses and eviscerated organs decorated all surfaces; and in the epicenter of the chaos and destruction was a metal lab table (and how it fit there, Petra would never know) covered in body parts on a tarp, with Petra's roommate looming over them, headphones blasting and chewing on her pen.

Petra waved her hands in the doorway, trying to get the brunette's attention. "Heeey!" She called out; she pouted, and picked up a pair of organ grasping forceps lying on the dresser by the door and chucked it at her roommate, making her jerk and yelp, nearly tripping on the disaster that was her bedroom floor.

She grinned and pulled off her gloves and headphones, pulling her goggle-glasses up. "Petra-baby! You're baaaack!"

Petra smiled. "Hey, Hanji."

Petra finally convinced Hanji to take a break to shower and change (and put the body parts away in the freezer she kept under her bed); once Hanji got into a project, she tended to neglect things like food, rest, and personal hygiene. Petra hummed to herself as she bustled around the small kitchenette behind the counter, pulling out plates, forks, and glasses and mixing up some lemonade and steaming some vegetables. By the time she finished placing everything on the table, Hanji had finished in the shower and was toweling off her hair as she walked over to the table.

"That smells so freaking good," she exclaimed, tossing the towel over her shoulder back into the hallway and throwing herself onto the chair opposite Petra, dishing up right away. Petra grinned, following suit. Hanji went to take a bite, but frowned when her wet hair flopped down into her face. She glanced around; "have you seen my hair tie?" she mumbled absently. After a moment, her eyes lit up. "A-ha!" she lunged for a silver gleam on the floor and surfaced with a small surgical clamp, using it to pull her hair back out of the way. Petra rolled her eyes, stuffing a forkful of crab into her mouth. She had long-since gotten used to the special brand of crazy that was Hanji Zoe; there was very little that her eccentric roommate did that could faze her (unfortunately, this included entire human cadavers being brought home and slapped down proudly on the kitchen counter with a cackling "guess what's for dinner?")

Petra was brought out of her reminiscing by Hanji's babble; something about her adventures in Forensic Biology and the morgue. Hanji was finishing up her dissertation (something to do with the effects of sunlight on the decay of human flesh; Petra didn't know the details and didn't particularly want to) and had been spending all of her waking hours since June working on it, experimenting (legally and illegally). It was good, since it meant all of Hanji's hard work was paying off. Unfortunately, it was also very bad, because it meant a dramatic increase in the amount of bodies and body parts that found a new home in their apartment's fridge and freezer. Hanji saw no problem with it, but Petra's tolerance was beginning to wear thin (there were only so many times one can handle sleepily reaching into the freezer in the morning and withdrawing, not the toaster strudel one was hoping for, but a Saran-wrapped human hand. Yum).

"… so really, the issue the whole time was in the levels of chloroplast, so I thought that maybe I could replicate that somehow in my experiment with…" Hanji ranted away, and Petra nodded and smiled indulgently, her eyes glazing over. Science was never her strong suit, and she never really understood what Hanji was talking about, she simply understood that Hanji needed to talk.

"So how was _your_ day?"

Petra looked up from her dinner. "Hm? Oh, it was good. It was really good," she emphasized, nodding strongly and spearing a piece of shrimp and eating it with gusto and relishing the undertones of the capers, tarragon, and lemon pepper. The Legion's seafood lasagna has long been a favorite of hers. Slightly more expensive than what she was usually willing to buy, but worth it.

Hanji raised her eyebrows. "'Really' good, huh?" She smirks and twirls her fork. "Do tell, m'dear."

Affixing her roommate with a dry look, the younger woman exaggerated the motion of taking another bite, chewing slowly, then swallowing. "Yes. Really good."

Hanji simply cackled good-naturedly. "Alright, alright, keep your secrets. But know that I, Hanji Zoe, will one day unearth them!" She stood and struck a heroic pose, one foot propped up on her chair, fork brandished like a sword in the air and her free hand on her hip, a mock-fierce scowl on her tan face.

Petra chuckled, pouring herself some more lemonade. "Have at it," she replied, taking a hefty sip and following it up with a forkful of veggies. "But in the meantime, eat the rest of your dinner; vegetables included." Hanji whined and pouted dramatically, crying out that her roommate was a slave-driver ("a slave-driver who feeds you", came the rebuttal, winning that particular argument).

"Aaah!" Wailed Hanji, lunging across the table to hug Petra, who sputtered and reached out to save her plate from an untimely demise. "What am I going to do when I graduate and move out?! I can't live without my cute little Petra-baby! Waaah!"

Petra groaned. Ever since the beginning of the semester, Hanji's last before moving on to graduate school, she had started lamenting the fact that she and Petra would no longer be roommates, since Hanji's school of choice was hundreds of miles away. "You have months before that, Hanji," Petra lectured patiently, patting the woman on the head (careful to avoid the surgical clip holding up her ponytail). "Just focus on your research; we've got time."

"But but but I'll miss yooooooou!" came the despairing wail. Petra huffed a laugh, thinking that their neighbors must surely hate them for the noise that emitted from their small two-bedroom residence.

"I'll miss you too; but we'll cross that bridge when we get there, m'kay?"

Hanji gave a great sniff. "M'kay."

After dinner, Petra did the washing up as Hanji scurried back to her lair and experiments, yelling thanks to Petra over her shoulder. Petra took another hour after that to study before hitting the shower and getting ready for bed. Before turning in for the night, Petra booted up her laptop to check her email, making sure there weren't any last-minute messages from her teachers or TAs.

There were none, but there was a message from her father, which she opened eagerly. Peter Ral was an English teacher at the high school in Petra's hometown of Rose Valley, which was a good three hours east of the university. Petra's mother had died in a school shooting (she worked at a middle school, teaching art) when she was too small to remember her; she had been raised by her father, who taught her to read and love learning from day one. It was that diligence and drive that pushed Petra to excel, to keep her grades high and apply to the top Criminal Justice programs in the country. It was Petra's dream to make the world a safer place, a place where people didn't have to live in fear. While scared for Petra, her father supported her unfailingly, recognizing the drive in his daughter and helping her however he could. This usually meant weekly letters, updating her on local news and stories about his best and worst students, offering anecdotes from his favorite authors and connecting to his daughter however he could. While he wasn't able to offer any monetary support, he was a veritable pillar of emotional support to Petra, acting as her rock.

Petra looked forward to his letters, and always set aside time to read them and respond, knowing that her father took just as much joy in receiving letters from her. There wasn't much in this week's letter; Peter talked about a make-up test he had scheduled for a student who had collapsed in a seizure the previous week, missing the original test. He waxed poetic about their elderly neighbor, the one that he always raked leaves for and was ritually rewarded with pastries and coffee that was 'almost as good as yours, Petra'. He expressed pride in her college education, saying that there were 'too many young people that are wasting their lives, stalling and never moving forward'. As always, he expressed a concern that she was moving too fast, and to make sure that she didn't get too caught up with boys, there was still so much time for things like that, she had years before she needed to make any decisions like marriage.

Petra scoffed good-naturedly; her father knew good and well that she had no interest in marriage, at least not at that point. She had some good things going for her, and she didn't want to jeopardize her dreams and future by tying herself so closely to someone else, to someone else's hopes and dreams that would inevitable become hers. She had always planned to live first for herself, to fulfill her own dreams and live her own life before investing in another's or—later down the road—creating a new life. She was content with what and where she was, thank you very much. She explained this clearly in her reply, as she always did, along with a detailed update of her goings-on at school: what classes she was taking, which tests were coming up, her paper for Professor Smith's class, Erd, Gunter, and Auruo's antics at lunch and study group (the three of them plus Hanji had come with her over summer break to meet her father and spend the week on vacation; her father had taken a liking to all four of them, unofficially adopting them into the Ral family). After reiterating how much she loved and missed him, Petra signed off her letter, sent it, shut down her computer, and climbed into bed.


	4. In Which Levi Teaches

Chapter 3

 _"Across the room your silhouette starts to make its way to me._ "

\--

Petra speed-walked into the lecture hall, making it just as the bell rang. Saved! She sighed in relief; it had been a hectic morning—Hanji had stolen her cell phone in the middle of the night to use her timer for an experiment. Apparently her phone had died and she couldn't be bothered with finding the charger. Normally, Petra wouldn't mind this, but her alarm clock was on her phone, and Hanji hadn't put the phone back when she finished. In fact, Petra still didn't have it on her; she was running late and didn't want to deal with rummaging through bloody surgical instruments to find her phone, which would probably be dead at this point anyway. She had yelled a veritable river of curses at her roommate as she threw everything into her backpack, threw on her tennis shoes and ran out the door. Part of her felt bad for yelling at Hanji; the larger part of her wanted to strangle her roommate with her bare hands. _Thanks a lot, Hanji. You're a real pal._

She made her way to an open seat in the front row (one of many in a row, nobody else wanted to sit in front today, it seemed), setting down her sweater and backpack and pulling up the side desk on her chair. She exhaled, unzipping her bag to pull out her notebook and a pencil. It wasn't until then that Petra bothered to look up to the front of the room, and froze, pencil resting on her bottom lip. _Is that?_

It was—Levi was slouching over the podium, looking bored and irritated. He'd traded out his usual hoodie and jeans for slacks and a collared shirt, the sleeves pushed up and the top button undone. Petra's eyebrows rose right up to her hairline. _Oh MY. Doesn't HE look FINE._ As if he could hear her thoughts, Levi's gaze slowly swiveled to meet hers, his eyebrows going up as if to say, "so I guess we're both in this". She smirked back in return, a little confused but no less amused.

Moments later, Levi heaved a sigh and pulled himself up off of his elbows to straighten up. "Alright brats, listen up," he called out to the classroom, which silenced its curious chatter immediately. "Erwin is running late today, so he told me to get this shit rolling. I'll start up the lecture, and then when he gets here he'll take over, got it?" There was some murmuring and discombobulation among her classmates, but Petra found herself looking forward to the lecture. _Oh this'll be good._

Levi grabbed the chalk and started writing on the chalkboard behind the podium and front desk. _The Damn Lesson Plan_ , it said, and Petra found herself suppressing a burst of laughter as her classmates froze. Levi continued to outline the day's lesson, writing down key points and subtopics in a slanted elegant script that seemed too good for such an informal setting. Petra scrambled to keep up, her wrist cramping up as she scribbled down everything that Levi wrote. Once he finished, he underlined the first topic, tossed the chalk back onto the ledge, and started lecturing. Petra found herself shocked once again at just how much Levi knew. And he insisted he wasn't a student or a TA!

Petra found herself sucked into the lecture even more so than usual. Criminal Justice was something that she took a great interest in, something that she had decided to invest her life in. Professor Smith had a way of explaining it concisely and clearly, making it easy to understand. But Levi—Levi made it come alive! He made a simple lecture seem so much more real.

Just when Petra was the most involved, the most excited for her class, Professor Smith walked in, and a spell over the whole classroom seemed to lift and break as Levi fell silent, looking over to the new arrival, who looked almost sheepish. "Sorry to interrupt," he teased.

"It's about time you got here, old man," scoffed Levi, a scowl on his face. He chucked the piece of chalk squarely at Professor Smith's head; the teacher caught it, raising an eyebrow and smirking at Levi, shaking his head minutely.

He took a look around the classroom, seeing the students still writing absently or frozen in the act of note-taking. "Looks like you were a hit, Levi!"

Levi scoffed, scowling deeper. "Shuddup," he retorted. "Teach your damn class, Erwin."

He rolled his eyes as Professor Smith made his way to the front of the room. "Sorry I'm late, everyone," he apologized, setting down his briefcase. "I got stuck in traffic, there was a pile-up on the interstate. Let's see, where did Levi leave off…"

Petra jumped as Levi flopped into the chair next to hers, slouching down in it. She blinked once, twice, then awkwardly went back to note-taking, writing down everything that the professor did; usually his lectures drew her in, but they seemed almost like a letdown now, and she found herself wishing that Levi would always teach. He made it so… so REAL, so applicable! She marveled, thrilled at the experience she'd just had. He would make an incredible teacher! He's well-qualified to be a TA, I don't understand—Petra jerked as Levi reached over and snatched the pencil straight out of her hand, erasing the last line of notes that she'd written and rewriting a corrected sentence. Wordlessly, he handed back the pencil and went back to slouching in his seat, staring idly at the chalkboard.

They continued this way until class ended, not speaking to or looking at each other, simply sitting next to each other. Petra tried to focus on the lecture, but it was hard when Levi was being so distracting (by doing absolutely nothing, damn him). She had always liked Professor Smith's class, had looked forward to it every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of her week, never missing a class and devoutly taking notes and studying the readings. Now she was conflicted—a part of her wanted to tune out of the lecture and revisit the little fluffy cloud in her mind that contained the first half hour of today's lecture; the other half was more motivated than ever to study, to learn, and she found herself torn. She settled on staying the way she always did: focusing on the lecture and taking notes, as detailed as she could. She would figure out this quandary later, when she was home by herself and didn't have to worry about other people being around.

They stayed that way until the bell rang, making Petra jump. She turned to Levi, to thank him for the lecture, for correcting her notes, to say something, but he was already halfway across the room, heading for the door without a backward glance. She blinked; _what just happened?_

\--

"…and then he just left! I mean, who does that?!" Petra growled lowly as she viciously twisted the cap on her chocolate milk off, opening the bottle and taking a hefty swig.

"Well were you expecting him to say something to you?" Erd asked with a confused eyebrow raised. "I mean, did he even talk to you?"

"Well, no but… but he just corrected my notes out of the blue! If I did that to someone—which I would never!—I would say something to them afterwards! 'Hey, sorry about that, but I noticed that you wrote that law wrong and didn't want you to study the wrong thing later!' That's what a normal person would do!

Erd chuckled, eating a forkful of his salad; he'd been trying to get in better shape lately, and had been eating better and putting in some time running around the neighborhood where he and his fiancée Emily lived. Petra and the others teased him about eating 'rabbit food', but he took it with a smile and teased them back for having clogged arteries, to which they toasted him with their burgers and pasta dishes. Erd had been in the classroom with her during Levi's lecture, but he Gunter and Auruo had been sitting in the back of the room, so he hadn't seen the interaction between the two of them.

"I mean," Petra continued, spearing a cherry tomato and inspecting it. "Sure, he's a little…off…"

"What do you mean, 'off'?" asked her friend with a small frown.

She shrugged. "I dunno; he's just…he seems a little different. He's not a student, but he's not a TA either."

"Wait, he's not a TA?"

"Well, no…"

Erd frowned. "Then why was he teaching the class? Seems like Professor Smith trusted him enough to call beforehand, so it wasn't just a spur of the moment thing; he taught really well, like he had a lot of experience with it. I never would've guessed he wasn't a TA." He took another bite, contemplatively and swallowed. "I mean, I didn't recognize him, so I figured he was from a different section, or a different professor's class."

Petra hummed in agreement. "Yeah. I met him yesterday outside of Professor Smith's office when I went to get some help with that paper…" she trailed off as she spotted Auruo and Gunter across the cafeteria and she sat up, propping a knee on her chair to wave to them over the sea of heads. She heard Erd snickering at her (he was always teasing her for being short), and she stuck her tongue out at him before returning to her task. "Gunter, Auruo!" she called out. They stopped scanning the room and looked over to her (or what they could see of her, which was most likely just an arm and the very top of her head). Auruo pointed and they started making their way over, cutting through the mass of students.

Her task complete, Petra sat back down and started eating her stew again; it was too cold that day to sit outside, so the group had opted to eat indoors. Having gotten up late that morning (thanks a lot, Hanji), Petra hadn't had time to pack a lunch and hated spending more money than she needed to, so Erd had offered her some of the stew that Emily had packed for him that day. Emily's cooking was some of the very best that Petra had ever encountered, so she was more than happy to take him up on his offer, promising to bake cinnamon rolls for the next day (Erd's greatest weakness, diet be damned).

"There you are!" Auruo exclaimed, pulling up the chair next to Petra's and throwing himself down in it, groaning.

Gunter smiled and claimed the chair between Auruo and Erd. "We didn't know where you guys had managed to find a table, or if. It's a madhouse in here."

"Tell me about it," Auruo griped. "I had to jog here from across campus; I had to run some papers to Professor Dawk before this." They all grimaced sympathetically; Professor Nile Dawk taught the Criminology course that was required for their major, and was a notoriously stingy teacher. He tended to ignore all excuses and justifications and mete out his own justice for wrong-doings in his class. As his TA, Auruo had the displeasure of meeting with him on a weekly basis to go over notes and reports for the week. It was a miserable task, but the pay was decent.

"We were just talking about the guy who took over the 212 lecture today," Erd segued; "he sat down next to Petra when Professor Smith came in and grabbed her pencil to correct her notes then didn't say anything else to her. He booked it as soon as the bell rang; apparently he's not a TA, isn't even a student."

"Seriously?" Auruo snapped. "Then what's he doing teaching our class? Is he a graduate?"

"I don't think so," Petra mused. "He didn't seem like it."

"'Didn't seem like it'?" Gunter repeated with a small frown. "What do you mean?"

"Well, he doesn't seem much older than us, probably the same age; and he seemed too, I dunno… laissez faire, I guess. At least he was when I talked to him." She bit her lip in contemplation, then shrugged and took another bite of stew.

"I thought he didn't say anything to you?" Gunter questioned, frowning again as he pulled out his own lunch; Gunter was an incredible cook. He often made the meals for himself, his mother and grandfather, a wheelchair-bound veteran who doted on his daughter and grandson as much as he could. He and Gunter had a strong connection, and it was he who inspired Gunter to go into Criminal Justice, wanting to do something to make the world a safer place, but didn't want to enter the military as that would mean leaving his family behind. It looked like goulash and spaetzle today, Petra noticed—she may have to steal a bite of that.

"So when did you talk to him?" Grilled Auruo with a note of teasing in his voice. Auruo always brought simple lunches; he leaved by himself in an apartment off-campus and didn't do much cooking.

"As a matter of fact, yesterday," replied Petra haughtily. "He helped me with my paper."

"If he's not the TA, what was he doing helping students with their papers?" asked Gunter in confusion.

"Professor Smith wasn't in his office yesterday," Petra explained. "Levi was standing outside the office, and I figured he was there to meet with the professor too, and we started chatting." Well, maybe chatting was too strong of a word. "I said I needed help with my paper, and he told me to fork it over." Erd snorted, choking on his drink, making him pound on his chest. Petra rolled her eyes; it wasn't that funny. "So I showed it to him and he just sort of…took it from there, I guess."

"Did he actually help or was he just BS-ing?" asked Auruo, an eyebrow raised.

"He really helped! He really knew what he was talking about, and I got tons written after that!" Petra praised. "He said he was 'the closest thing Erwin's got to a TA', so I'm not quite sure what that means."

"He seemed awfully comfortable harassing Professor Smith," Erd observed. "He just chucked the chalk at him and sat down, doesn't seem like something any sane student would do. A friend maybe? Colleague?"

They speculated a little longer as they ate, but didn't seem to be able to come up with anything plausible, so they drifted away from the topic.

"So listen," Auruo brought up after a beat of silence. "My friend Mike has this cabin in the woods about two and half hours north-west of here, and he said that we could use it for fall break, if we want. He was going to, but he's 'meeting the parents' that weekend, so it's not being used."

"That sounds like fun!" Petra enthused. She'd been up in that area once before on a hiking trip with Hanji and had loved it.

"Mike?" Erd frowned, thinking. "Wait, Mike Zacharius?"

"Yeah, that's him," Auruo confirmed. "Do you know him?"

"Vaguely," Erd confirmed with a nod. "He was in my 210 last semester. Kind of a weird guy; smelled everything."

Auruo snorted. "Yeah, he's a bit weird, but he's scarily good at…pretty much everything, actually. He's really athletic, so he does a lot of intramural sports. He even set up a zipline up by his cabin, and we can use it if we're careful! He takes his girlfriend Nanaba there all the time, they love it."

"We should!" Petra enthused. "That would be so much fun! We can go hiking, and it's only, what, an hour, hour and a half from the lake?"

"Yeah!" Auruo confirmed, becoming more animated now that someone else was on board with his plan. "Campfires are legal in the area too, so we can light one up and do tinfoil dinners or something!"

"You really like camping, right Auruo?" Gunter questioned.

"It's great! My family and I used to go all the time when I was a kid; they still do now, but my siblings say it's weird without me," he bragged. Auruo was the eldest of six siblings, and despite acting like that annoyed him sometimes, he was clearly very proud to be the 'cool big brother', and talked about them incessantly whenever given the opportunity.

"Well, I'm on board," Gunter chimed in. "My mom is taking my grandpa to a Simon and Garfunkel concert that weekend as an early Christmas present, so I'm free."

"Me too," Erd agreed. "Emily was thinking about flying back to see her mom for the weekend, and I think it would be more fun for just the two of them without me butting in," he laughed.

"It's settled then!" Auruo cheered.

"Yay!" Petra and Auruo high-fived, thrilled that they had new plans.

"On that note," Erd cut in, squinting at the clock across the cafeteria. "I'd better get going; I promised Professor Zackly that I'd drop off the reports from the CJ department." Petra scrunched her nose in distaste; Darius Zackly was a retired court judge and the department head of Criminal Law. Erd acted as an errand-boy of sorts for the Criminal Justice department, which collaborated with Criminal Law on a regular basis. He was stuffy and intense, and Petra could never tell what he was thinking. Thankfully, she rarely had to deal with him; in fact, the only times she had ever interacted with him were at the joint barbecue that summer and when she accompanied Erd on his errands across campus.

"Good luck," Auruo intoned with a mock salute.

"May God have mercy on your soul," Petra added with a stony face (which didn't last long before she was fighting a smile), saluting as well.

Erd rolled his eyes affectionately, gathering up his belongings. Petra closed up the Tupperware container that Erd's stew had been in and handing it back. "Thanks for the stew, Erd! You're the beeeest!"

He laughed. "I'll pass it on to Emily."

"Please do!" Petra glanced at the clock and hummed. 3 o'clock already. "Well, I'm going to get to the library. Midterms are coming up, and I need to study!" She snatched up her bag and started making her way through the crowd. "See you guys!"


	5. In Which Coffee is King

Chapter 4

_"Shifting eyes and vacancy vanished when I saw your face."_

\--

_I'm going to die here in this library, and no one will find my body. I will be buried under this titanic pile of textbooks. This is hell. I have found hell and it's right here, on the second floor of the university library._

After a straight six hours of studying for her midterms (on a Saturday, no less), Petra was out of steam. She glanced at the clock—five thirty already—and decided it was time to call it quits for the day; she wouldn't learn anything more if she was this mentally exhausted. She packed up her books, re-shelved the ones that she had borrowed from the library for the day, and buttoned up her wool coat, heading outside and to the nearest Starbucks for some well-deserved and much-needed coffee.

Unfortunately, it seemed that every other student studying on campus that day had the exact same idea. The Starbucks was packed to bursting, with the line going out the front door. Petra stared in disbelief. _This is crazy!_ At this rate, it would be well after six-thirty before she got her order and left, and Petra just didn't feel like wasting that much time. She sighed; so much for that.

"So much for that," came a deep voice right behind Petra, making her yelp and jump, spinning around. Levi was standing right behind her, hands in his pants pockets, a scowl on his face and dark circles under his slanted blue eyes. He glanced at her, meeting her own brown eyes. "I was planning on heading here for a drink before heading home, but screw that. No way am I waiting in that line."

"Yeah," she said breathily, trying to get her heart rate under control again. "Yeah," she repeated, a little stronger. "Me neither." They stood together in silence for a few beats longer. "Thanks, by the way," Petra said.

He raised an eyebrow. "For what?"

"For correcting my notes the other day; I would've ended up studying the wrong theory if you hadn't, and something tells me I need to know that one for the midterm," Petra explained with a big smile.

Levi didn't smile exactly, but he dropped the scowl and his face seemed to soften somewhat; he shrugged. "Whatever."

_…maybe I should thank him for the paper, too._

"And for helping me on my paper, too. You're a lifesaver!" Maybe… "Listen," Petra started, feeling awfully bold. "If you want, you can come over and I can make you some coffee; to say thanks for all your help! It's pretty good, if I say so myself." A part of her felt mortified; what was she doing, asking over a complete stranger to have coffee in her apartment? She knew nothing about Levi, showing her where she lived was a huge risk! But another part of her was feeling bold and free today, her mental exhaustion throwing her rationality and paranoia out of the window.

Levi's eyes widened as he stared at her in return, surprised. After a blink and a moment of silence, he smirked. "Why not?"

Petra smiled wider. "Sounds good!" She led the way to the bus stop. "You don't mind taking the bus, right?"

Levi tapped her shoulder and pointed to the Starbucks parking lot. "I can do you one better." He started walking off, leaving Petra to scramble to keep up. Levi led them to a pure black sports bike, making Petra's eyebrows leap up to her hairline. _WELL then._ "This is faster," Levi countered, and tossed his helmet at her; she scrambled not to drop it. It was just as black and shiny as his bike, and she blushed just slightly as she jammed it on top of her head, fumbling with the clasp at the bottom. "Here," Levi said, pointing to the side of the bike. "Put your foot there and then swing it right over." She followed his instructions and mounted the bike. "Where to?" Levi questioned as he inserted the keys, starting up the machine, which purred smoothly.

Petra rattled off her address and Levi nodded confidently, pulling quickly but seamlessly out of the parking lot and into traffic. Petra gasped and grabbed onto Levi's shoulders so as not to fall off the back of the bike. Levi knew all the backroads and shortcuts, and they got to Petra's apartment in record time, and Petra hadn't once felt endangered on that bike, which was perhaps even more impressive.

Levi cut the power on his bike and Petra hopped off, pulling the helmet off and handing it back to Levi, who nodded in thanks and stored it in the container on his bike. Petra led the way up the stairs to the second floor, where she pulled out her keys and unlocked the front door. As she walked in and turned on the entryway light, she had a split moment to wonder: _are there any body parts lying around? …OH SHIT._

She glanced around frantically before stopping and frowning; the apartment was…clean. She glanced to the counter and saw a piece of notebook paper covered in Hanji's messy scrawl; she picked it up, curious. _Hey Petra-baby,_ the note read. _Sorry about stealing your phone D: I'm sorry! I looooove you! I cleaned up my stuff around the apartment for you <3 I'll be back late! <3 –Hanji_

Petra grinned, thankful and amused, then snapped back to the present at the sound of Levi taking his shoes off at the front door. She pulled off her coat, draped it over one of the kitchen chairs, and moved into the kitchen, opening up cabinets and grabbing out the coffee maker, coffee beans, hazelnut, everything she would need to make the best coffee she could. "Make yourself at home," she called over her shoulder to Levi, who was standing propped up against the counter on his elbows. He nodded and made his way to the kitchen table, straddling one of the chairs with graceful ease.

"Nice place," he offered, looking around.

Petra smiled. "Thanks! My roommate is usually here, but she's out for a few hours. Probably picking up intestines or something," she added under her breath. She started the coffee maker and came to sit down at the table. "Coffee'll be done in just a minute."

Levi nodded, and there was a brief silence; it wasn't necessarily uncomfortable, but it was slightly awkward. "So what were you doing up on campus today?" Petra asked; anything to start up a conversation.

"Helping Erwin write the test for your class," he revealed, running a hand through his hair. "He's terrible at writing 'em."

Petra groaned. "It's gonna be a killer, isn't it?" It was more fact than statement to be honest.

Levi shrugged. "It's not that bad. Go over the history and theories and you'll be fine."

Petra gave him a skeptical look. "That's what the teachers with the hardest tests always say."

"Well then, you'd better study up," Levi mocked lightly.

Petra rolled her eyes. "Any tips?"

"Yeah. One, open up your notes. Two, fucking study that shit."

She barked out a laugh, and then found that she couldn't stop. Levi smirked a little. When she had calmed down a bit, she felt more relaxed in Levi's company; enough so to delve a little deeper into the conversation. "So how do you know so much about Criminal Justice? Are you a student, or a graduate or something?"

Levi frowned, though it seemed more contemplative than upset. "No, neither. I haven't been a student since sophomore year of high school." A dropout? "I guess you just pick up things, living with a professor." He shrugged.

"How did you end up with Professor Smith?"

Levi grimaced. "You make it sound like we're dating," he spat. "He's…not really a friend, I guess, just…" he shrugged. "He's just Erwin."

 _Okaaay._ "So do you help out with the tests and grading and whatnot? Is that your job?"

"Nah." He shook his head. "I do data entry from home. Erwin is just scatterbrained and needs help doing simple stuff like grading."

"Scatterbrained? He always seems so on top of everything."

"In the classroom, yeah, but put him in charge of grocery shopping and he gets completely carried away."

"Sounds like Hanji," Petra muttered under her breath. She had trusted Hanji with the shopping once. _Once._

"What about you?"

"Huh?"

"Why Criminal Justice?"

"It's a long story," Petra said self-consciously. The timer on the coffee machine beeped, signaling the end of the cycle. Petra hopped up and started preparing the mugs, draining, mixing, and pouring with practiced ease. When she finished, she brought the two mugs over to the table, where Levi was waiting patiently; he stood up and turned his chair around, sitting in it the right way and pulling it up slightly to the table. Petra set down the mugs and sat down, curling her hands around the warm mug and humming appreciatively at the soft scent of hazelnut that wafted up to her nose. Levi looked at it and frowned, then took an experimental sit. His eyes widened fractionally, looking between the coffee and Petra, who raised an eyebrow and stifled a smile; her coffee tended to have that effect on people.

"Well damn," Levi muttered, taking another sip. They drank in companionable silence for a while before Levi spoke up again. "So?"

"…So what?"

He scowled slightly. "Why Criminal Justice?"

"Oh; you actually want to know?"

His scowl deepened. "If I didn't want to know I wouldn't have asked."

Petra floundered for a moment, blushing embarrassedly. "Um, my mom died when I was really young, in a school shooting; she was an art teacher. And I was really confused, you know? I didn't know what was happening, why my mom wasn't coming home, why people were coming over all the time to apologize; my dad was always crying. I remember, once I finally started to understand, asking my dad why we didn't just go after the bad guys. My dad told me that we needed to have faith in the police, in the lawyers and investigators that were working on the case. He told me to be patient and let them do their jobs. I didn't want to, and I got mad at them, but my dad was always so kind to them, always so patient and supportive, even though his wife had just died; he always made them coffee when they came over to update us on news. He asked over to dinner a few times. I just… I dunno; I ended up getting really close to the police force, they were kind of like extended family. I learned to appreciate them and what they did."

Petra smiled into her mug. "That changed me; I was sad to lose my mom, but I was really grateful to have that experience, you know? I decided in elementary school that I wanted to join the police force and become a detective, and help people like the cops in my town helped us. Not just catching the bad guys, but really making the world a better, kinder place." She laughed softly. "A little corny, but that's my story."

"…Hm." Was all Levi said, taking a deep drink of his second mug.

Petra raised her eyebrows. Is that all he has to say? "Do you have any interest in CJ, or is it just because you live with Professor Smith?"

Levi shrugged, half-scowling. "The law is… something I've always been close to, I guess. I've lived on both sides of that particular fence."

 _Both sides of…?_ "What do you mean?"

"Nothing," he rebuffed smoothly. He took a half glance at the wall clock and then did a double-take, cursing under his breath. "I gotta get back to Erwin," he said, making another of those 'tch' noises as he stood and threw on his jacket, grabbing his keys from the pocket. He hesitated before leaving the table. "Thanks," he said gruffly. "Your coffee is a hell of a lot better than the crap they serve anywhere else."

Petra beamed. "Door's always open," she offered. "…figuratively speaking."

Levi smirked. "I might just take you up on that, Petra." He walked over to the door, opened it and was halfway out when he paused. He turned back to her; "you might want to study up on Unification Theory and early 19th century court justice... and the Church of the Wall vs the State case." And with that, he was out the door before Petra knew what had even happened.

\--

Taking him up on his advice, Petra studied those two things extensively, and discovered that there was an essay portion on one and a timeline match-up on the other, which she was able to breeze through thanks to the heads-up.

With her midterms finished and the weekend upon her, Petra left campus early, forgoing her usual study time in the library and went home and went straight to bed, sleeping for the next fourteen hours, because she deserved a rest, damn it. When Professor Smith passed back her test the coming Monday with a big red 98% on the cover and a smile and nod, Petra thought she just might cry. Auruo, Gunter, and Erd pegged her with questions, 'how did you know what to study?' 'how did you get a 98', Petra just smirked and answered, "coffee."


	6. In Which Petra is Sick

Chapter 5

_"Now I'm pacing back and forth, wishing you were at my door."_

\--

Petra sniffed as she tossed another tissue at the trash can at the end of the coffee table, haphazardly fluffing the pillow beneath her and pulling her blanket tighter around her. She was sick and miserable, and all she wanted to do was curl up and sleep; but duty called, and she had an assignment for physics due online at midnight. Her teacher had agreed to accept her assignments by email until she was able to return to class and submit them in person.

All of her teachers had been sympathetic and understanding to her, Petra mused gratefully. She was double-whammied by a bad cold and a bad case of food poisoning courtesy of Hanji, who had apologized profusely and felt absolutely terrible. She had eaten the exact same thing as Petra, but had suffered no ill effects. _She's not human,_ mourned Petra. _She's some crazy alien who's come to Earth to study our science and coffee-making._

She lazily picked up her laptop and got back to her equations. She hated physics, and she was terrible at it, but it was required by the university as she hadn't tested out of science classes. She had for math, and she was still trying to figure out how exactly that had happened. She glanced around at the handouts and notes littering the coffee table in front of her; Auruo, Erd, and Gunter had been dropping by daily to keep her up to date in classes that they shared, making copies of their notes and grabbing extra papers in class to make sure she didn't fall behind. Petra made a mental note to bake something nice for them when she got better; her friends really went above and beyond for her.

It was too quiet in the apartment; Hanji was up on campus, talking with one of the biology professors about some questions she had about her experiments, and wouldn't be back until later tonight, bringing chicken noodle soup from The Legion with her. Well that's something to look forward to, at least. Hanji had been brewing her special teas all week long, claiming that they would settle her stomach and boost her immune system. They tasted terrible, and after drinking the first one, Petra had vowed never to touch them again… until her stomach settled completely, and she was able to get a decent six hours of sleep without needed to rush to the bathroom to empty out her stomach. They were disgusting, but terribly effective (much like most of Hanji's experiments and methods).

She continued to work on her physics homework, mindlessly completing equations and filling in the blanks on the PDF worksheet. This was all she had to do that day, then she was free to go back to sleep. This stupid cold-poisoning combo had been plaguing her since Monday morning, and it was already Friday afternoon. She hoped that with a bit more bedrest, she'd be ready to go back to school on Monday. Missing a full week of school was something that she certainly hadn't planned on, and it was something that she never wanted to repeat again.

There was a knock on the door, and Petra started, almost dropping her laptop. It was odd for anyone to come to the apartment (save her friends); most—if not all—of the neighbors had been scared away by Hanji's experiments (the only reason she got away with them were because she was friends with the landlord). They had a 'no soliciting' sticker on the day, so salesmen never came by. Even the religious types didn't come around, following an unfortunate incident between the local pastor, Nick, and Hanji (it was lucky that Hanji wasn't arrested, honestly). Petra hauled herself off the couch, curiosity overriding comfort; true, she could pretend to be absent or asleep, but she was curious about who could be at the door; Gunter had already been by with the notes from the day's classes.

She unlocked the door and opened it, revealing… Levi? She felt a sudden rush of panic; Levi was at her apartment and there were dirty dishes and tissues all over the living room and kitchen area. _Awww shiii—_

"Can I come in?" Levi asked, one eyebrow raised. She had waited to speak too long, it seemed.

"Of course!" She scrambled to pull open the door and step out of the way, cringing as Levi looked at the mess around the couch. After having Levi over for coffee that day in midterms week, they had occasionally run into each other on campus and around town (mostly around coffee shops and The Legion, which was a favorite for both of them). She hadn't heard from him since falling ill, though.

"What brings you here?" she asked, dabbing at her nose with a clean tissue. "Sorry for the mess," she apologized sheepishly. "I've been sick this week."

"Yeah, I gathered," he mumbled, then he reached into his black messenger bag and pulled out a stack of papers, stapled and paper clipped together. "I brought your hand-backs from Erwin. He wanted you to have them as soon as possible so you can look over the corrections for the next draft of your paper."

"Oh, thanks!" Petra enthused, taking the stack gratefully from Levi's hand. "You're a life-saver!"

He snorted. "Hardly." He took another look at the tissues around the room. "You've missed a whole week of class because of a cold?"

Petra bristled and pouted. "Hardly," she parroted back. "I have a cold and a really bad case of food poisoning, with love from my roommate," she muttered.

Levi heard her though and raised his eyebrows. "Your roommate poisoned you?"

She shifted and made an indecisive 'eh' noise. "She didn't really mean to. She feels really bad about it. Honestly, I just should've known better about eating something that she'd made."

"That bad, huh?"

"Yeah; although, it's really more that she probably didn't wash up after her experiments…"

"What experiments?" Levi asked with a frown, curious.

"Um…" how to answer that… "She's working on her dissertation right now, something about the effect of sunlight on activity and decomposition or something. So she kind of brings back parts and… bodies… to experiment on at home." And here's where people run screaming.

Levi looked slightly disturbed. "Damn. Better be glad she's only interested in cutting up dead people."

Petra snorted, and then covered her mouth, embarrassed. "Yeah," she agreed. "She jokes about cutting people up when the piss her off, but I hope that she sticks to corpses. We've already had a few run-ins with the police over this, and the only reason she gets away with it is because of her mysterious 'connections' that she refuses to elaborate on."

"…How did you end up rooming with someone like that?" Levi asked, his eyebrows furrowed. He invited himself into the living and sat down in the couch across from the one Petra had commandeered for the week, swinging a leg up to cross over the opposite knee and throwing an arm over the back of the chair.

Petra sat back down on the couch, smiling. "We met through my roommate freshman year, Anka. Hanji was her lab partner and came over to work on homework and harass Anka; to be fair, I can't really blame her, since Anka was kind of a bitch," Petra added honestly. "I didn't like her very much. She would get crazy during finals week, she just couldn't handle pressure…" she shook her head, "anyway, Hanji and I just hit it off and decided to be roommates the next year," she finished with a shrug.

"You hit it off? What could the two of you possibly have in common?" Levi asked.

That was actually a really good question. "Um… hm… I guess… Nutella? Caffeine!" Petra concluded triumphantly.

Levi looked like he was going to hit her. "You're such a spaz sometimes, you know that?"

Petra laughed. "Yeah, I guess I am."

Levi sighed. They continued to talk about meaningless things like classes, the weather, Hanji's experiments, and even Professor Smith's hair.

"But he looks like Captain America!"

Levi scoffed. "He wishes he could look like someone useful like that."

"Out of all the adjectives you could have used for one of the most iconic superheroes in history, you use 'useful'?" Petra despaired.

A shrug. "What? He is. That's a compliment."

She laughed. "Coming from you, I guess Cap'll have to take what he can get!"

"Damn straight."

A yawn interrupted Petra's laugh, making her blush slightly. "Sorry; I'm always tired when I'm sick, it's a total pain…" She reached for another tissue as she felt another sneeze coming on.

"So take a nap," Levi told her, like she was crazy.

"I have company over!" Petra chastised. "One does not simply take a nap when there are visitors."

"Resorting to Boromir memes now? You must be tired," Levi drawled.

"You understood! You pass the test!"

"What freaking test?"

"The 'Worthy of Visiting Petra and Hanji's Apartment' test, of course. If you can't get Lord of the Rings and Douglas Adams references, I'm afraid you just can't be here," Petra revealed with a mock-despairing head-shake.

Levi rolled his eyes, muttering something along the lines of 'oh for God's sake' and stood up, coming over to push her down onto the couch and throw a blanket on top of her. "Get some rest, you idiot," he chastised.

"But we're talking," Petra argued, stifling another yawn as her eyes burned.

Levi made that 'tch' noise again. "We can talk later, when you're not sick. Just rest up already, for crying out loud."

"Tired of resting," Petra pouted, her eyes slipping closed; it was getting harder to keep them open.

"Too damn bad, now go to sleep."

It was hard to resist such a 'kindly-worded' order, and Petra found herself drifting off against her will, her mind fuzzy with thoughts of autopsies, Captain America, and hazelnut-flavoured coffee with cherished conversations.

When Petra woke up later, it was dark inside and out. She sniffed as she sat up, feeling warm and content. She flicked on the lamp beside the couch and started in surprise, wondering for a moment if she was in the wrong apartment.

Everything had been cleaned; the apartment was spotless. The dirty tissues were cleaned up, the dishes were done, the trash had been emptied and new liners put in, and Petra's notebooks and papers had been organized on the coffee table, her laptop placed perfectly center on top of the cleaned surface. The entire apartment smelled like disinfectant and the blanket that had been half-on half-off of Petra's torso when she fell asleep was tucked in around her. Petra had never been so confused in her life. Hanji still wasn't home, and Petra hadn't done it; that just left Levi.

There was a note left on top of her hand-backs from Professor Smith, and she picked it up curiously, bringing it closer to read in the half-light of the lamp beside her.

_Your apartment was filthy. Just rest up and stop being stubborn. –L_

Petra read and re-read the note a few times for good measure. She smiled widely and placed the note inside of her Criminal Justice folder and turned off the lamp, going back to sleep. _I am under orders, after all._


	7. In Which Levi is the Captain

Chapter 6

_"I'd open up and you would say, 'hey it was enchanting to meet you'."_

\--

School had slowed down, and it had reached the dull lull between midterms and finals; Gunter and the others had decided that Friday night would be a good time to head over to Pixis Pizza for dinner, and Petra had readily agreed. Pixis Pizza was their favorite off-campus hang out spot; they had gone there together when they first became friends, it was where Erd had met his fiancée Emily, it was Gunter's first job in high school—there were a lot of memories there, and they were all passionate about keeping up the tradition and making new ones in that quirky little pizza shop with its crazy ways.

"I'm bringing Emily with me," Erd mentioned the day before the arranged meeting. They decided that go out to Starbucks during their lunch hour; their last class had been cancelled, so they were all going home an hour early that day and decided to just eat at home instead of hauling a lunch to school for the day. Coffee was good enough, and the change of scenery was more than welcome. It was nice enough outside to sit at one of the café tables, so they got their orders and sat outside in the afternoon sunlight. Autumn at the university was always breathtaking, with the leaves turning and the warm breezes, and late afternoons and chilly twilight hours. Petra loved it, even with Hanji babbling away about chloroplasts and how 'science-y beautiful' the leaves were.

"Yay!" Petra cheered. "I won't be the only girl!"

Auruo laughed and slapped her shoulder. "Yeah, but poor Emily will be the only lady there, that's for sure."

Petra elbowed him so hard in the stomach that he bit his tongue, making him spit blood all over the back of his hand and curse. Petra snickered and went back to her coffee, leaving Auruo to grab a napkin off of the table and wipe up the blood.

"So yeah," Erd continued, eyebrows raised. "She's looking forward to it."

"It's been a while since Emily's hung out with us," Gunter added with a smile. "It'll be nice to see her again." He turned to Petra. "You should invite Hanji, too. She doesn't really get out much, it might be nice for her to get out and about for a bit."

Petra beamed. "That's a great idea! I'll ask her if she wants to come!" She took a sip of her coffee, even more excited for the next night. She paused; "Could I invite one other person?" she asked a little hesitantly.

Auruo smirked, mostly recovered. "Hm, who could dat pothibly be," he snickered with a lisp from his injured tongue, making Gunter and Erd snicker behind the rims of their take-out mugs.

Petra stuck her (uninjured) tongue out at him; she had talked a bit about Levi to the rest of her friends, about some of their funnier conversations and interactions. They liked to tease her about her 'boyfriend', but stopped when she started fighting back (physically).

"If Levi wants to come, bring him along!" Erd said with a smile. "The more the merrier!"

Petra grinned toothily. "Thanks, Erd! I'll ask him!" She whipped out her cell phone and rattled off a quick text to Hanji. _Hey, Hanji! The guys and I + Emily are going to Pixis' tomorrow at 7, are you in?_

She closed her phone and went back to her coffee; she would ask Levi over the phone later; he hated it when people texted him, saying that it was slow and irritating and 'if you're not man enough to say it in person, don't bother sending it as a text'. Levi, Petra had discovered, was full of amusing little quirks like that. He hated it when people made a mess, and hated it even more when they didn't clean up after themselves. He had tricks to clean just about anything, and had even shared some of them with Petra ("for when your stupid roommate gets blood all over the kitchen"). In addition to hating texts, he hated when people would call multiple times but never leave a voicemail ("if it's important enough to call more than once, give me a reason to answer the phone, damn it"). It was little quirks like this that drew Petra in; she liked being the one to know all of the little things that made Levi tick.

\--

"…so are you interested?" A brief silence on the other line; Levi didn't seem too interested in hanging out with a bunch of college students that he didn't even know, and Petra thought that if she didn't act fast, he would wheedle out of it.

_"Thanks for the offer and all, but I think I'll pass…"_

She brought out the big guns: "We can stop by my place on the way back and I'll make coffee~"

_"…damn it. Fine. What time?"_

Petra fist-pumped in victory. "Seven o'clock! You know where Pixis Pizza is, right?"

 _"Of course I do; I know where pretty much everything is in this city."_ This was true; there were many a time when Levi showed up places way earlier than Petra expected simply because he knew every alley and shortcut in the city.

"Great! I'll save you a seat, then!"

_"Yeah, yeah, whatever; I'll see you tomorrow, then."I/i >_

Petra grinned; even though his words were a little caustic, his tone was more fond resignation (or maybe she was reading too much between the lines, but she'd gotten fairly good at reading Levi). "See you tomorrow, Levi."

\--

When seven o'clock pulled around the next day, Petra's bus pulled up to the stop down the street from the pizza shop; she thanked the driver, hopped off, and began making her way over to the front door. When she pulled the door open, she was greeted by the warm air and tantalizing smell that was the atmosphere of Pixis Pizza. She closed the door gently behind her, the bell on the door chiming in time to the Stevie Nicks song that played over the loudspeaker and glanced around, quickly spotting her friends in their customary booth near the back. She grinned and made her way over, pulling her scarf free as she did.

Hanji spotted her first, standing up and waving at her in excitement. "Petra baby, over here! Petraaaa!" The rest of the group looked up from their conversation and called out a greeting to her, motioning her over. They had snagged the biggest booth, a circular one that fit all of them quite comfortably. Hanji had been at the apartment all day and had simply walked over; Petra, who had been studying in the library, had opted to take the bus over and meet everyone there.

Petra laughed and scoffed. "I see you, Hanji." Satisfied, Hanji sat back down between Gunter and Auruo, smiling. Hanji didn't get out often, but she felt right at home with 'the guys', and they all felt comfortable around each other, something that Petra was infinitely grateful for. Hanji was hard to get along with if you didn't click with her right away or were easily terrified or offended (nothing was sacred to Hanji, and everything had flaws in her eyes, and she tended to point out these flaws). This made her especially unpopular with the religious types, and Petra had to stop herself from remembering the 'Pastor Nick Incident'; that was a dark day, and Petra thanked every deity she could remember that Hanji hadn't gone to jail over that one (a miracle in and of itself).

She reached the table and sat down on the end, next to Auruo and across from Emily, whom she greeted enthusiastically. Emily and Erd had met in their sophomore year in this very restaurant; Erd had made a fool of himself, Emily had thought it was adorable, and they were engaged a year later. They weren't getting married until they graduated though, which Petra thought was a smart move. They were living together in a small apartment west of campus, and they were one of the cutest couples Petra had ever seen.

They decided to wait to order until Levi arrived; at about five past seven, the door opened and Levi walked in, hands in the pockets of his biker jacket and his face neutral. Petra hopped up out of her seat and waved her arms around. "Levi!" She called. "Over here!" His eyes zeroed in on her and he gave her that 'look', the one that screamed 'you're an idiot and you're acting like an idiot, therefore I will _treat_ you like an idiot'. He made his way over to their table, and everyone at the booth turned their necks to catch a glimpse of him; Gunter, Erd, and Auruo had of course seen him when he taught the first half of their lecture, but Hanji and Emily never had, despite hearing about him (Emily through Erd and Hanji through Auruo, the traitorous bastard).

Ignoring the probing stares of his new tablemates, Levi slid gracefully into the booth, right next to Petra, who grinned widely. "I was starting to think you wouldn't show," she teased. "You're always so punctual."

He made his customary 'tch' noise. "Erwin was being a useless bastard and left his keys in his office, so I had to make a stop by the house to let him in."

Petra laughed; she still had no idea how the two of them became friends or ended up moving in together, but it was always entertaining to hear Levi's stories about Erwin. He talked about him more like he was his stupid brother or step-father than a friend.

"So, you're the 'Levi' that we've heard so much about," Hanji teased, leaning over the table with a hungry glint in her eye; warning bells and klaxons started going off in Petra's mind.

Levi raised an eyebrow, and then turned to Petra. "What have you told them," he asked in a deadpan voice.

"Nothing at all," Petra said sweetly, amping up the 'smiling death glare' to over nine thousand and directed it warningly at her roommate, who chose to ignore it.

"Not much," Hanji said honestly. "We've had to draw our own conclusions, which pretty much collectively say that—"

"Let's order!" Petra burst out loudly; she had no desire to know just what Hanji was speculating, and if Hanji continued any further, she may have to resort to violence.

Emily, sensing Petra's desperation to interrupt, came to her rescue (one of the many reasons why Petra liked her so much). "Yes, lets order! I don't know about the rest of you, but I am starving!" She stood and made her way to the counter. Helpless to his fiancée and her wishes, Erd followed suit, with Gunter trailing after them.

Petra breathed a sigh of relief and turned to Levi. "Come on, let's go order something!" He slid out of the booth, allowing Petra to do the same, Auruo following. Hanji pouted but followed them to the front of the restaurant.

The cashier, a small girl with dyed silver hair in a bob and metal-rimmed glasses and a nametag that read 'Rico', stood waiting to take their order; she looked bored. "Welcome to Pixis Pizza," she said blandly. "What can I get for you?"

Emily went first; "I'll have the small pesto chicken pizza," she announced with a smile, "and just a water cup." The cashier—Rico, according to her nametag—nodded seriously and typed it in.

"And I'll take the small Santa Fe chicken pizza," Erd said, "and a small drink. That's it for the two of us." Rico nodded again, gave them their total, rang them up, and then gave them their number, calling up the next in line.

As Auruo ordered his dinner, Petra turned to Levi. "I'm sorry about Hanji," she said quietly. "In advance. Just so you know. I tried."

He snorted softly. "It was such a surprise, you know, since you speak so highly of her social skills."

Petra bit the inside of her cheek and tried not to burst out laughing. Levi usually didn't go for sarcasm, just for straight-out blunt observations; but when he did, it was funny as sin.

"Your turn, Petra," Gunter called.

Petra nodded and stepped up to the counter; she made it a point to try a new pizza every time she came, and she hadn't found one yet that she didn't like. "I'll have the small island retreat, please; and a small drink."

Rico rang her up then moved on to Levi, who ordered the supreme. With numbers and drink cups in hand, they migrated back to their table, talking and laughing. When they were all seated they placed their numbers on the table and Auruo turned to Levi. _Here it comes,_ Petra thought with a mental flinch. _Time for the (expected) inquisition._

"So what's your story?" The sandy blonde asked bluntly. "How did you end up meeting Petra?"

"Auruo!" Petra hissed, elbowing him. "You make it sound like we're dating!"

"Aren't you?" Erd asked with a mischievous glint in his eyes. The responding glare from Petra promised a painful death.

To his credit, Levi hardly seemed intimidated. "I'm Erwin's roommate, for lack of a better term," Levi revealed.

"Erwin?" Emily asked Erd quietly, confused.

"Professor Smith," her fiancée clarified, and she nodded in understanding.

"He leaves shit at home all the time and I have to bring it up to him," Levi continued. "Petra needed help on a paper, Erwin wasn't there when I brought his stuff, so I helped her."

"Are you a teacher as well?" asked Emily, curious; the others looked just as inquisitive, and Petra had to restrain herself from rolling her eyes. Gossip mongers, all of them.

"No way in hell," Levi said bluntly. "But I know the material just as well as Erwin does, so I guess I'm the closest thing to a TA he has; I help him write the tests and grade papers, so I know what I'm doing."

"Are you a student?" asked Gunter.

Levi's eyebrows furrowed slightly. "No; I do data entry from home."

"How did you end up rooming with Professor Smith?" asked Auruo curiously, and Petra perked up, hand freezing as she brought her soda cup to her mouth. She covered it up quickly, but felt a little embarrassed just the same. That was a question that she had pondered a few times, but never quite had the cause or courage to ask.

Levi frowned thinly; "We met a few years ago," he answered slowly and deliberately. "I needed a place to stay, and Erwin offered to let me bunk in his guest room." There was a lot missing in that explanation, but Petra felt a little better for knowing.

"How old are you?" Hanji piped up, irrepressibly curious. She had been rather quiet, Petra realized. This usually meant that she was watching and making observations, waiting to ask her questions until she had a basis to ask.

"Twenty-four," Levi answered.

"I'm not the oldest anymore!" Hanji cheered, arms up in the air. "I'm twenty-three," she revealed (she's just like a kid, Petra thought in exasperation). "Petra baby and Auruo are twenty, Gunter's twenty-one, and Erd and Emi are twenty-two," Hanji listed off, despite the weak, teasing protests around the table. "You are now the oldest of the group!"

Erd laughed. "You'll make him feel like an old man," he joked.

"He's probably the most mature out of you lot, too," Emily joked, laughing. There were half-hearted protests, but nothing solid. They joked about Levi's brief stint as Erwin's substitute teacher and how he had commanded the class. Levi rolled his eyes and told them it was easy to put students in their place.

"'Captain my captain'," Auruo joked, snickering good-naturedly.

"To the captain," Gunter joked, raising his glass; they all followed suit, sans Levi, who looked rather confused. Petra laughs as she clinks her paper cup with everyone else's, the mood high and light; she felt inexplicably relieved that Levi had been accepted so seamlessly into the group.

Rico came over then with a tall boy with black hair and another girl with short brown hair (Gustav and Anka, according to their nametags) and they started passing out the pizzas, much to the delight of group. The rest of the night revolved around discussions of class, Criminal Justice, plans after graduation, and general joking. Petra enjoyed herself thoroughly, her delight doubling whenever Levi included himself or was included in the current conversation, happy that everyone was enjoying themselves. Levi had that look in his eye that indicated that he wasn't as guarded as he usually was and had started to loosen up, and it made Petra so damn happy she could sing.

They parted ways shortly before ten, the shop's closing time. Gunter gave Auruo a lift home in his grandfather's pickup truck, as their homes were relatively close together; Erd and Emily lived within walking distance, and they headed off, hand in hand. Hanji jumped on the bus, claiming that she needed to pick up something from her 'minions' before heading home. Levi offered Petra a ride and she gratefully accepted; she'd ridden with Levi on his bike several times, and swung her leg smoothly over the back of the bike and held on to Levi with the ease and comfort of a long-time passenger.

She was pleased to note that over the course of the few times he'd given her rides home, he learned to relax when she held on; he no longer held himself so stiffly. It was a small thing, but Petra found herself pleased nonetheless.

They arrived back at Petra's apartment complex and Petra lead them both up the stairs, chatting aimlessly with Levi following behind, commenting occasionally. She unlocked the front door and turned on the light, tossing her keys into the ceramic dish on the end of the bar counter. As promised, she took out the coffee maker and started up a fresh batch. Levi had already made himself at home in the font room, sprawled in the armchair by the window, a seat that he had become increasingly fond of lately.

"You looked like you had fun tonight," Petra teased, sitting on the couch opposite him.

Levi shrugged. "They're okay; weird as hell, but they're alright."

Petra snorted in laughter. "Yeah, we're a strange bunch, that's for sure."

Levi's face softened just a fraction and he rolled his eyes, reaching over to flick her forehead. "You're the strangest one there," he admonished.

Petra pouted. "Am not. Hanji is!"

"…Second weirdest, then."

"Ugh! You're awful!"

"Tch. At least I'm not as short as you."

"You're one inch taller than me, damn it!"

"Still taller."

"Oh, bite me!"

They bickered and teased each other until the coffee was ready; Petra went over to the machine while Levi grabbed the mugs. Hanji burst through the door, singing at the top of her lungs. Petra yelled at her for scaring her and Levi just grabbed a third mug. They settled at the kitchen table with their coffee, Levi and Hanji practically melting with the smooth hazelnut flavor.

Coffee soothes the savage beast, Petra snickered in her mind. As excited as she had been for introducing Levi to her friends, she had been equally nervous. Though she hadn't known him very long, Levi was just as dear to her as her other friends were, and the thought of them not getting along had troubled her. Looking at Levi and Hanji bickering over coffee refills though, she felt relieved.

When the coffee was gone, and then gone again, and Hanji was a giggling pile of limbs as the result of a sarcastic joke from Levi that had Petra choking on her coffee, Levi announced that he was going home. It was nearly one in the morning, and even with the caffeine, Petra had started to wind down.

"I'll walk you out," she offered, sliding her feet into her slippers and making her way to the door after Levi. He shrugged and they descended the stairs together, Levi's heavy boots clanking on the metal steps and Petra's fabric slippers shuffling quietly after. Levi's bike was parked on the street right in front of the stairwell, and he pulled out his helmet and strapped it on, swinging effortlessly onto his bike. "Thanks for coming over tonight," Petra said with a smile, arms folded and hands pulled into the sleeves of her sweater to ward off the cold. "This was a lot of fun."

Levi smirked softly, and Petra could just barely make it out through his helmet. "Yeah, it was fun," he agreed. "I'll see you later." He pulled away from the curb, waved casually over his shoulder and was gone. Petra smiled after him and made her way back up the stairs, softly opening the door and shutting it behind her, slipping off her footware. Curious at the lack of teasing remarks following her reentry, she made her way to the living room and smiled at the sight. Hanji had fallen asleep on the floor where she had been laughing just a few minutes ago. She had been up for days working on her experiments, and Petra figured it was about time she ran out of steam.

"Honestly," she scoffed softly, heading to Hanji's room. She opened the door and flicked the light on, making her way carefully around the surgical instruments and trays of who-knows-what. Hanji was always good at putting away the 'perishables' so they wouldn't spoil while she was out, but she was terrible at actually cleaning her instruments and work surfaces, and Petra would really rather not contract AIDS by fetching a pillow for her roommate, thank you very much. She grabbed Hanji's pillow and blanket off of the bed and brought them out to the living room, placing them under and on top of her sleeping roommate, deciding it would be easier to let her sleep it off in the living room than to maneuver her into her own bed for the night.

That done, she moved into her bedtime routine, locking doors and windows and turning off lights. She brushed her teeth, changed into her pajamas, plugged her phone in to charge and then climbed into her own bed, switching off the bedside lamp. She fell asleep almost instantly.


	8. In Which Petra & co. Go Camping

Chapter 7

_"Counter all your quick remarks like passing notes in secrecy."_

\--

Fall break was finally coming up, and they were getting ready to head out to Mike Zacharius' cabin for the long weekend. At lunch, Petra started writing out lists of who was in charge of what. Gunter was borrowing his mother's van to drive them all up and was also bringing emergency supplies. Erd was in charge of food, Auruo was bringing pots and pans, and Petra was bringing extra bedding (everyone was in charge of bringing their own sleeping bag, but there were some mattresses up in the loft, so Petra was bringing blankets and sheets for everyone in addition to the sleeping bags).

Petra had already asked Hanji if she wanted to come, but she was defending her dissertation that weekend and couldn't make it (there were many tears and sobbed apologies from her). Erd had suggested inviting Levi (who had easily merged into the group and was well-liked by all of them), but he had also declined the invitation, saying that he was meeting up with someone that Saturday (and didn't sound too happy about it). He had sounded almost regretful about missing out on the excursion, but held firm that he couldn't go.

It was Wednesday when they got everything finalized. Auruo proudly announced that Mike had just given him the keys and told him how to set up the zip line and all of the safety precautions for using it. Petra was excited to hike and have campfires, but she was looking forward to the zip line the most out of all of the activities.

When Friday afternoon rolled around, Petra hurried back to her apartment to change her clothes and grab her things. Hanji was already gone, heading to the city an hour away with one of her 'minions', Moblit, who was her 'assistant' for the day. Petra had never met him, but she had heard him over the phone when Hanji had called her during lunch, and he sounded like he was nearly in tears.

Tying her hiking boots and double-checking her backpack, Petra got ready to head out. All of her stuff was waiting by the front door—sleeping bag, pillow, giant suitcase and duffel bag packed with bedding, a smaller suitcase with clothes and toiletries, and a heavier coat for the colder nights. She double-checked everything and then went to sit on the couch and wait for Gunter and the others to show up. She decided to send out a text and let everybody know she was heading out.

_Hey, everyone! We're heading up to the cabin now; not sure if we'll have reception, but I'll try and keep you updated! Don't worry if you can't reach me. –Petra_

She sent it out to Hanji, Emily, her father, and Levi. Just as she put down her phone, it buzzed, displaying a notification that Erd had texted her. She opened up the text; _We're here; Auruo and I will come up and help you with the bags._

Petra jumped up and threw on her backpack, grabbing luggage and turning off all the lights. Hanji was staying in a hotel for the weekend, so no one would be home. Auruo and Erd didn't bother knocking, they walked right in and started grabbing bags, chatting excitedly with Petra. Erd was looking forward to a few days in the great outdoors; Emily was visiting her mother for the weekend, and wasn't really one for sports and outdoors-y activities, so Erd didn't get out to the wild very often. It had been a few years since Petra had gone camping; she and Hanji went hiking occasionally, but never stayed the night. Auruo went camping rather regularly with his family, whenever he could, so he was their top authority, which gave him a rather comical ego boost.

They reached the campsite late in the afternoon; they had wanted to get an early start, but that would mean skipping classes, which none of them felt right in doing. So they had waited out the day and gone up later. The cabin was nice—a small two-storey layout with an open kitchen, a bathroom, a queen-sized bed downstairs, and a loft through a trap door in the ceiling with a stack of mattresses in the corner. They four of them agreed to just use the mattresses upstairs, to make it more fun. There were five of them, so each of them took one mattress and left the spare alone. It took a while to unload the van and get everything in the kitchen and up the ladder to the loft (and that was an adventure in and of itself). By the time they had finished, it was starting to get dark outside and they all agreed to stay in for the night and get an early start. They made up a campfire in front of the cabin and made tinfoil dinners (which Auruo was ridiculously excited about) and Petra managed to jury-rig some decent coffee with a pot of water boiling over the campfire and some instant coffee. Auruo had found some camp chairs in a small shed behind the cabin and they unfolded them (during the process of which Petra unfolded one that had a black widow in the seat, and there was much screaming, cursing, and killing, from both her and Auruo).

After much admiration of her 'magic coffee skills' and a filling dinner, the group put out the fire, they retired to the cabin and headed upstairs for bed. It was only ten o'clock, but they all wanted to get an early start the next morning. They made their beds (mattresses) and had a small pillow fight (in which Petra was unarguably the winner; she was merciless), told the stupidest ghost stories that they could think of, giggling in the darkness like kids until they fell asleep, one after another.

Before Petra drifted off, she pulled out her cell phone; she had put it in the side pocket of her bag when the guys had picked her up that afternoon and forgotten about it, and she had three new messages (much to her delight, she did in fact have service). She opened the first message, one from her father:

_Be careful, Petra! I love you! –Dad_

The next was from Hanji: _Have fun Petra babyyyyyy! I loooooove you! Moblit says hi too (he's yelling at me now, haha). Moblit, y u so mad? Crazy kid. LOVE YOOOU!_

Petra tried not to laugh and wake up her bunkmates; she knew nothing about this poor Moblit character, but he had her sympathy.

The last text was from Levi, and Petra found herself blushing and smiling, getting exciting and slinking further into her sleeping bag to read it.

_Have fun and all that shit. Be careful. If there's bears, leave Auruo or someone to get eaten and book it._

Petra grinned and typed out a new text.

_We're all settled in here! Getting an early start in the morning! And there's good service here, yay! Goodnight! <3 Petra_

Petra hit send, put her phone away in her bag, snuggled deeper into her sleeping bag, and fell asleep with a soft smile on her face.


	9. In Which There is Nature and Ziplines

Chapter 8

_"This night is sparkling, don't you let it go."_

\--

True to their word, the next morning was an early one, and no one was happy about it until Petra made enough coffee for an army and the four of them drank all of it in one go. At that point, everyone was fairly excited for the day, which they decided would start with breakfast, then a long hike, lunch out in the wild, a hike back, trying out the zip line, and a barbecue dinner.

They whipped up a breakfast of hash browns, bacon and eggs, all cooked by Auruo, who was the indisputable master of the campfire. It was delicious, and his ego was boosted more than Petra had previously thought was possible.

They set off at eight o'clock, heading uphill into the mountains at a steady pace, Auruo and Petra in the front, excited and irrepressible, noting different plant species and animals, dragging Erd and Gunter behind them. Erd and Gunter were happy to come, but they didn't possess quite the enthusiasm that their companions did. When they reached the small clear lake at the end of their hike, they pulled out their lunches (courtesy of Erd and Gunter, who had made and packed them while Petra made more coffee and Auruo cooked breakfast that morning). Peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches, apples, juice boxes, iced coffee and cookies were distributed to the famished hikers, and they sat down on the edge of the water to eat their lunches.

"I'm telling you, that was a tarantula, and it was not natural!" Erd vehemently cried, waving his sandwich around in the air.

"Actually, I'm pretty sure that was a wolf spider," Gunter added quietly, looking apologetic and slightly disturbed (because of the spider or the way that Erd was speaking with his mouth full was a toss up).

"That's even worse!" Erd cried. "Spiders are the bane of mankind! I'm telling you!"

"That would be hipsters," Auruo corrected. "Hipsters are the worst."

"Not the worst," Gunter argued. They thought he was trying to keep the peace until he finished eating his sandwich and said, "that position belongs to entitled freshmen." His male friends grumbled in agreement, outdone.

"Decaf coffee," Petra argued, leaving it at that. Her companions gave over-dramatic roars of outrage, decrying such an outrage.

They packed up their things shortly after that and started the hike back to the cabin, still excited, but feeling more relaxed and wound-down than before. They teased Erd all the way back about spiders, but he got his revenge by tossing a garter snake at Auruo's face, making him scream shrilly and dance around, swatting at his hair. Petra found it hard to think of a time when she had laughed as hard as she had right then. Even Gunter, the peace-keeper, laughed his ass off.

They made it back to the cabin by about four in the afternoon and dumped their packs on the kitchen floor, grabbing everything they needed for ziplining. Mike only had two sets of gear for the lines, for himself and his girlfriend, so he had told Auruo all the details of what they needed if everyone was going to use their own; they could take turns, he had told him, but that meant waiting for the two people with the gear to hike all the way back up to the top of the line before anyone else could go.

They pulled out harnesses and helmets that they had rented from a local sports store, strapping everything on and then heading straight for the line while Auruo briefed them all on the safety rules; it was the standard 'hold your body this way', 'balance like this', 'always wear your helmet', etc. that Petra had expected. In elementary school a friend of hers had a zip line in her backyard, running from her treehouse to a post in the yard, and Petra had been on it once or twice. This was on a much grander scale, obviously, but she knew the gist of it all.

When they reached the line, Petra gawked. It was set up at a steep angle on a hill, going down into the trees below. It looked terrifying, and Petra couldn't wait to try it out. She hopped up and down on the balls of her feet as Auruo double-checked the mooring at the top of the line and made sure everything was stable. When he finished his preliminary checks, he geared up to go down first, making Petra pout ("it does belong to my friend," he teased her like a kid).

"Mike said there's one or two trees that are a little close to the line, so keep your arms in, boys and girls," Auruo teased. As he hooked up his gear to the line, yanked on it once or twice to double-check the stability, and then he was off, racing through the trees at breakneck speed and disappearing from sight, the sound of the harness grating against the metal the only evidence that he was still attached. Petra was about ready to explode with eagerness as they waited a few minutes to make sure Auruo was clear, and then Gunter and Erd hooked her up (she was just barely too short to do it on her own, which made her groan and them laugh).

Without even taking the time to double-check the line like Auruo had, Petra was off, jumping off of the even ground and speeding down the hill. She let out a whoop of exhilaration, eyes wide against the stinging wind. It was breathtaking, with the oranges, reds, and yellows of the changing leaves, the pinks and golds of the setting sun in the distance, the muted browns of the tree trunks. Auruo had said that Mike and his girlfriend Nanaba had become thoroughly addicted to this, and she could easily see why. True to Auruo's word, there were several large oaks that were close to the line, close enough to reach out and touch if she were so tempted. She found herself falling in love with the entire experience, letting out another great whoop as she reached the bottom, jogging to a stop and unhooking from the line. She laughed as she ran over to Auruo, who was leaning up against a tree in the clearing.

He smirked at her adrenaline-rushed face and helmet hair. "Someone had fun," he teased, ruffling up her hair even more.

She smacked at his hand, grinning. "That was awesome! Ugh, I want one so baaad!" she whined, hopping up and down.

Auruo laughed. "Maybe one day. It's getting late, but we can come up tomorrow before we leave and have a few more turns on it if you want."

"Yessss!" Petra cheered, pumping her fists in the air as Gunter made it to the bottom.

"That was sweet," Gunter said as he pulled off his helmet, smiling.

"Wasn't it?!" Petra agreed, walking over to him with Auruo following behind her. "We should do it again tomorrow!"

"No arguments here, that's for sure," Gunter agreed. They waited for Erd to meet them at the bottom, who agreed wholeheartedly with them that they should come back the next day.

They walked back to the cabin as the sun set, pulling out flashlights to light the way back; Auruo was quite the navigator, and they reached the cabin without any setbacks or wrong turns. They set up the barbeque and Auruo started to grill up steaks; Petra and Gunter peeled some potatoes to boil and Erd set the table and set out drinks and condiments. Once the steaks were finished, they all sat down on the porch and dug in.

"So what's the plan for tomorrow?" Petra asked between bites of steak and potatoes. "What time are we heading back?"

"I think we should get out of here about… noon-ish?" Suggested Erd, taking a drink from his soda can. "That way we can get back with some time to unpack and do any homework or readings or anything for school on Monday. How does that sound?"

Auruo nodded in agreement. "Noon sounds good. We can pack our stuff up tonight, get an early start tomorrow; load up the car and then spend some time on the zip line before heading back."

"Sounds good to me!" Gunter agreed, cutting up his steak. "We get back early enough, I can help my mom with dinner and get my readings for 212 done."

Petra groaned. "Daaaamn! I forgot about those! They're due on Monday, aren't they? Ugh."

Auruo just snickered at her pain. "Didn't you do your homework like a good little girl? Poor Petra."

Lightning-quick, Petra reached over, grabbed the back of Auruo's head, and smacked it into the porch next to him, making him yelp and cover his mouth with his hand, blood leaking out. "Ah bi' mah ton'!" He squacked. "Moth' o' Go', Pet'a, you bit'!"

Petra blinked innocently. "Did you bite your tongue again? This is becoming a bad habit, Auruo."

"Tho' you ba' hab'is," he mumbled.

"Just bite your tongue off and die," she snapped back, then smiled sweetly. "You're bleeding all over the place, Auruo, go grab a napkin or something."

Erd and Gunter shared a wary look, moving on the porch to sit out of reach of Petra.

"…Right, so noon tomorrow. We'll wake up… eight-ish?" Erd suggested, trying to bring the focus back.

"Ugh. Eight," Petra groaned, then shrugged. "Yeah, that'll work. The more time we get on that zip line the better!"

After dinner, the group cleaned up their dishes, put the food away, and headed up to the loft to pack up their belongings. Everything that they wouldn't be using the next day was packed up and into the van, leaving just clothes, breakfast food, some food for lunch in the car the next afternoon, toiletries, and the zip line equipment. All cooking instruments and food that wasn't being used, as well as hiking equipment and coats were packed up into the car.

When Petra finished putting all of her things in the van and before she went to bed, she started sending out another goodnight text; in the middle of composing it, though, her ringer went off. She jerked in surprise as she scrambled to answer the phone. "Hello?"

_"Hey; still hiking in the forest of big-ass trees?"_

Petra laughed gleefully at the pleasant surprise. "Nope, I've had my fill for now," she told Levi, settling down on the porch outside to talk, wrapping her jacket around herself tightly. Erd, Gunter and Auruo were all in the loft getting ready for bed, so she didn't have to worry about their conversation being interrupted. "How's life in the 'real world' going?"

_"Tch. A pain in the ass."_

Petra raised an eyebrow. "Wow; I leave for a few days and your whole life goes to hell, huh?" she teased.

" _Hardly. Erwin is making my life miserable at the moment, that bastard."_

Petra frowned slightly. "What's up with you and Erwin?" She had long-since gotten over the worry of being too nosy or irritating to Levi.

_"He's been nagging at me to get my GED and go to college. Like I need to."_

"Why is it an issue now?" Petra asked, her frown deepening. "He's been fine before now with you not going to school."

_"Hell if I know. He's always been going on and on about 'responsibility' and how I'm 'better than this', how I 'have so much going for me', but he's being an extra dose of bastard lately, so I told him to shove it and he wasn't too pleased."_

Petra huffed an exasperated laugh. "He might just be jealous that he has a college degree to be a teacher but you stole his class without one," she teased. "He secretly suffers from an inferiority complex. You're stealing his job out from right under his nose!"

Levi barked a laugh, and Petra's smile widened. _"I didn't even need to lift a finger—I just had to walk into the room, my sparkling personality and charisma did all of the work. He never saw it coming."_

Petra laughed unrestrainedly. "So that's how it happened! The moment we thought something was off, you just had to turn up the charm and the whole lecture hall was putting in your hands!"

 _"Damn straight, and don't you forget it."_ They were both comfortably silent for a few breaths. Petra wanted to ask what the special occasion was that merited a call from Levi, but she felt like if she asked, it would break the spell. _"Hey,"_ Levi started, bringing Petra back to the moment. _"Listen, I just wanted to call and… I dunno, make sure you didn't die in the woods or some stupid shit like that."_

Petra's eyes softened. "I'm okay. We're getting an early start tomorrow, getting up at eight, heading to the zip line for an hour or two, and then heading out by twelve. I'll be back tomorrow afternoon… you could drop by tomorrow night for coffee, if you want. I'm dying for some real coffee right now."

There was a beat, and then a small huff. _"Yeah, that sounds good. I'd forgotten how much I hated that Starbucks crap. Dammit woman, I'm getting spoiled by your stupid hazelnut shit."_

She laughed, pulling her knees up to her chest and cradling the phone to her other ear to give her right ear a break. "How does seven o'clock sound?"

 _"Works for me. I'll grab some pizza or something, leave Erwin to fend for himself. He's got a PhD, he can figure out how to work a microwave."_ Petra couldn't decide if Levi sounded irritated at his roommate and friend or gleeful at the prospect of making him squirm.

"Pizza sounds great; I'll eat whatever kind you want." She realized that they sounded like an old married couple, but instead of embarrassing her, it made her feel warm and at ease. "I'm glad you called," she admitted. "It's nice to hear your voice."

_"Careful, you're getting chick-flicky on me. I'll have to smack you upside the head, set your brain right."_

"I hit back," she laughed. "Just ask Auruo, he's been my punching bag this weekend."

_"I find that hard to believe."_

"He's almost lost his tongue twice now."

 _"Jeezus woman,"_ he said, half surprised and half admiring.

"I can defend myself," she bragged.

_"Yeah yeah, a real Rosie the Riveter… You should get to bed; you said you're getting up at eight, right? On a Sunday, no less, you're all crazy."_

"No crazier than you are, you've become one of us!" She intoned in a melodramatic voice. Levi made that unique-ly him 'tch' noise on the other end, and she laughed. "I should get to bed soon, though… I'll see you tomorrow night, m'kay?"

_"Yeah, whatever. Just have that coffee ready."_

"Yes sir, Captain!"

_"You still haven't dropped that joke?"_

"Nope!"

_"What a pain… alright, to bed with you, go."_

Petra laughed. "Alright, I'm going!" She smiled. "Goodnight, Levi. I'll see you tomorrow."

_"…Yeah. 'Night, Petra."_

She ended the call, placing the phone against her chest over her jacket, smiling softly, and then pocketed the device and went back inside.

Once they were all settled in the loft, there was an impromptu pillow fight, lots of giggling after lights-out, and some deep philosophical ponderings intermixed with the occasional, "if you don't shut up and go to bed Petra, I swear to God, I will not be held responsible for my actions." Nobody got to bed until after one o'clock that night.

At eight o'clock the next morning, Erd's alarm went off; when he didn't get up right away to silence it, Petra threatened to beat it against the loft railing until it died a death more painful than Joan of Arc. Erd silenced it immediately.

Everyone dragged themselves out of bed and rolled up their sleeping bags, grumbling about the early morning light outside (or lack thereof, making it harder to see) and the frigid temperatures. Winter wasn't there yet, but it had certainly sent out the vanguard in advance. Petra left the boys to haul the bedding and sleeping bags out to the van as she took on the sacred coffee duty, brewing the instant coffee they had into something not only edible, but palatable. When everyone had drunk a full mug, she started on another batch and Gunter and Auruo started on breakfast, leaving Erd to finish putting everything in the car (out of the four of them, he was the best at finding ways to make luggage fit in the car trunk).

Once they all had a good amount of caffeine in their system, everyone was much more enthusiastic about getting to the zip line and finishing off the weekend on a high note. They geared up and headed out to the top of the line, laughing about Gunter getting scared by a snake, Erd shrieking at the appearance of another spider, and Auruo tripping on the path. Petra laughed the most, until Erd dropped a centipede in her hair, provoking a stream of profanity and panicked flailing. He got a punch in the got for his trouble, but proclaimed whole-heartedly that it was well worth it.

They reached the zip line at almost ten, and Petra immediately called first dibs, dancing over to the line and hooking her gear up to it. Auruo protested, but at the threat of another tongue-biting incident, he backed off quickly.

Petra pushed off and went speeding down the line, whooping in excitement. It was a whole new experience doing it in broad daylight; everything was lit in a whole new light, and the air felt more alive than it had the night before. When she reached the bottom, she immediately began a jog to the top of the line to go again. The four of them spent the next hour going up and down the hill, playing and flying through the trees.

Near eleven, Erd called them to the top and said that they were on their last go before heading out. Petra pouted; I could do this all day, every day! "We should do this again in the summer!" she proposed. "And we'll bring up Emily, Levi, and Hanji with us next time! And Mike and Nanaba, of course."

"That sounds like a good idea," Gunter agreed, smiling widely with the adrenaline rush that was coursing through his veins at the moment.

"I'm up for it!" Auruo agreed, grinning broadly and resting against a nearby tree.

"Sounds like a plan," Erd said with a smile and nod of his own. "We'll have to talk to Mike about it the closer to summer we get." He turned back to the line. "Alright! Who wants to go down first the last time?"

"Me!" Petra and Auruo called simultaneously.

Gunter laughed. "Just rock-paper-scissors for it or something," he suggested. They did just that, and very enthusiastically. It was Auruo's win, and he lorded over Petra for a moment before whizzing off down the line. Petra pouted for a moment longer, then smiled and went over to the line.

"Do either of you want to go first?" she offered, feeling slightly silly for getting so worked up over the whole thing.

Erd and Gunter just laughed. "Go ahead," the former said with a 'shoo' gesture. "It's all yours, Petra."

"Thanks," she laughed with a grin, hooking up her gear one last time. She'd gotten rather good at it throughout the day, and regretted that her skills would be rusty by the time she got to do this again. With a smile to her friends, she was off again. She took her time to appreciate it that last time, enjoying the warm autumn breeze and the turning leaves. She breathed in, blinking against the sting on her eyes. Feeling bold, she released her grip on the belts hooking her to the line, letting the clasps do their work as she slowly extended her arms outwards, grinning at the sensation; it was like flying!

She drew in a breath to let out a 'whoop', but it was knocked out of her lungs when her balance shifted, thrown off by her extended arms. Her body panicked and overcompensated, and Petra felt a jerking tug on the line behind her, making her whip her head around to check what had happened.

It was never clear after that if it was because of the shift in her balance, that jerk on the line, or some other factor that caused it—but as a result of one or several of the potential causes, Petra's body shifted; instead of being perpendicular to the ground, she was parallel for a split second.

In that split second, Petra was able to see the huge oak right in the line of sight next to the line.

And she flew straight into it.

She gasped a breathy inhale half a moment before impact, eyes widening in fear of the inevitable collision. The tree trunk took up her whole field of vision, there was an almighty crack! and then everything went dark.


	10. In Which Levi is Distressed

Chapter 9  
_"This is me praying that this was the very first page."_

\--

Auruo was leaning up against one of the trees at the bottom, helmet off and taking a moment to breathe; he'd worn himself out running up the hill to the line and then zipping back down over and over again, but it had been well worth it. It had been fun to argue with Petra, too. He knew it was juvenile, but it was fun to get her riled up. She was just as much a kid about it as he was; it was just so funny to see her pout and fuss when he beat her at something or teased her.

Speaking of Petra. It had been a while since he'd touched down and she still hadn't shown up. "After all the fuss she raised, too," he scoffed fondly. He pulled out his phone and called her to tease her about being so slow, but she didn't answer. He figured that meant she had finally gotten on the line. When she still didn't show up, he called Erd.

_"What's up?" Erd answered._

"What's taking so long?" Auruo asked, more curious than irritated.

Erd laughed. _"Ah, sorry, Gunter and I were talking and got caught up. We'll be right down; you and Petra try not to kill each other, okay?"_

Auruo frowned. "Isn't Petra with you guys?"

There was a pause. _"…No. She went down right after you did._ "

"…She's not here yet," Auruo told them, a cold weight settling in his stomach.

_"…SHIT. Check the line going up, we'll start from up here! Call us when you find her!"I/i >_

"Got it!" Auruo was already moving, running up the hill, fatigue forgotten. Petra naturally had good balance on the line, and she'd never shifted on the way down. There wasn't anything wrong with the line, Auruo himself had checked it over every time they used it. So what—Auruo stopped in his tracks, breath catching in horror. The trees. The god damned trees that he had warned them about, the ones that were close to the line. It was the only explanation that made sense.

He started running again, desperation lending speed. He started calling out for Petra, yelling her name as loudly as he could, hoping—praying—that she would answer.

He could smell it before he saw her—blood. There was a coppery scent surrounding the oak next to the line, and Auruo felt the lump of dread clutch at his heart and throat, cutting off his desperate calls. He made his way around the tree, breath catching in horror.

She had hit the tree dead on, snapping her clips right off of the line. Her body was bowed backwards over itself with her torso pressed against the oak and her head tilted back, a spattering of blood sprayed across her face and hair. There was a growing splotch of blood on the back of her coat.

With shaking hands, Auruo pulled out his cell phone, redialing Erd, who picked up immediately. "Did you find her?"

He took a rattling breath. "…I found her."

\--

Auruo would look back on that morning and would never be able to remember exactly what happened after that. He knew that Petra hadn't been breathing, that Gunter had run back to the cabin to guide the paramedics that Erd called. He remembered trying to get Petra to breathe again, doing everything that he could short of moving her, not knowing what to do about her obviously-damaged spine.

He remembered the paramedics strapping Petra to a backboard and slipping on a neck brace, rushing her to the life-fight helicopter that had landed in a wide clearing nearby to be loaded in and flown to the hospital near the university, the best in the state for trauma like this.

Auruo remembered following after Gunter and Erd and climbing into the van, buckling up with mechanical movements and staring at the empty seat next to him, the seat where Petra was supposed to be sitting. He had no idea what anyone had said after that phone call with Erd; words went right over his head. He had no idea how they managed to get to the hospital, how long it took, where they parked, or how they ended up in the ER waiting room.

But when Erd started talking about calling Peter Ral, and Hanji, and Levi—that's when Auruo started to tune in again, when words seemed to make their way through the sludge in his brain that had settled, thick and muffling. He supposed it was the shock wearing off, knowing that Peter had to know about his daughter. That one of them would have to tell Hanji that her pseudo-sister was on an operating table. Someone would need to explain to Levi that there would be no pizza and coffee that night.

Erd leaned back heavily in his seat, circles starting to form under his eyes. "I'll call Peter. He needs to know." After a moment of deliberation, he rose, straining like Atlas under the burden of the world. He pulled out his phone, dialing as he walked down the hall for a more private setting.

"…I should let Hanji know," Gunter said in a quiet, weary voice, his eyes red-rimmed. Had he been crying? Auruo didn't know.

A different kind of weight settled in his core; a weight of responsibility and grim determination. "I'll call Levi," he volunteered, voice scratching. "He and Petra were going to have dinner tonight," he added in a smaller voice; he had overheard Petra's call with Levi the night before and had planned to tease her about it on the way home. Gunter grasped his shoulder, nodding in encouragement before making his way down the hall after Erd.

The waiting room was basically deserted at that point, and he didn't think he had the strength to stand at that point as it was. With a weary sigh, he pulled out his phone, staring blankly at it for a moment, his mind flickering back to the last conversation he'd had on the phone, screaming at Erd that Petra 'isn't breathing, damn it!', the fear of losing one of his closest friends short-circuting his rational mind.

Pulling himself to the present, he moved through his contacts slowly, coming to rest on Levi; he didn't even know his last name, but he was calling him to say that he might never get that dinner-date with Petra. It was such an intimate conversation, he should at least know the man's full name.

Taking a deep breath, Auruo hit 'connect' and waited through the dial tone.

After a few rings, Levi picked up. _"What?"_ was the waspish reply, irritation clear in his tone. Auruo could hear another voice in the background, a man telling Levi to 'put down that phone, we're not done yet and Levi's muffled reply of 'fuck off, old man'. _"What is it?"_ he asked again.

Auruo swallowed dryly. "Levi," he said brokenly and registered the hitch in Levi's breathing on the other line, sensing that something was wrong, connecting the dots. "Something's happened…"

\--

Erwin had been ragging on him for weeks now to do something with his life, to push himself, to find something that he could excel in. Levi wasn't buying it; he had lived ambitiously enough before, and look where that had gotten him. No; he was making enough money to get by, he had a place to stay, he even had some people he could let his guard down around. He didn't need any more than that.

"Dammit Levi, you're wasting your life!" Erwin raged, jabbing a finger at him. "Is this all you want out of life? You just want to input data until computers are able to do it themselves? Then what, huh? You need to do better than that!"

"I can do whatever the hell I want!" Levi snarled, eyes flashing dangerously. Erwin rarely lost his temper, but when he did he could easily match Levi's own.

"It's not a question of can or can't! You're smart enough to go to school, to do well, to make something out of your life!"

"Oh, so that's it? School solves everything, yay for education?" the younger man sneered, balling his fists. "I can be anything I want as long as I have a degree to show for it, huh? Bullshit!"

It had been like this the past few nights, with Erwin coming home to find Levi working on the computer; he'd start making not-so-subtle suggestions about going back to school, Levi would snap back, Erwin would get waspish, and Levi would bite back. Erwin had always wanted Levi to at least get his GED, but lately he'd started pushing him to go to college, too, and Levi wasn't having any of it.

"I don't need some fancy-ass diploma to tell me who I am!" Levi snarled, throwing a dictionary at Erwin with all the force he could muster. Erwin blocked it easily, sending it crashing to the ground.

"A 'fancy-ass diploma' could get you a steady job—"

"I have a steady job!"

"Doing a robot's work! How long will that kind of job last? What will you do then?"

"I don't care—"

Levi's phone went off, cutting into the conversation. Equally irritated and relieved for the interruption, Levi snapped it open, answering it. "What?"

Erwin growled at him. "Put down that phone, we're not done yet!"

"Fuck off, old man!" Levi snarled, flipping him off. "What is it?" he repeated; he hadn't bothered to check the caller ID, and part of him felt bad if he were scaring Petra.

There was a heavy inhale on the other end and a choked, _"Levi."_ It was Auruo, and something was wrong. Auruo was with Petra, Levi's brain supplied and Levi felt himself freeze.

_"Something's happened. There was… God. There was an accident. With Petra."_

Levi felt the world shift under his feet, his rage leaving him in a rush; his mouth went dry. "Where are you?"

_"We're at the hospital, just south of campus. She's… she's in surgery right now, I don't—dammit I don't KNOW anything, I just…"_

Levi was already out the door, keys in hand as he made his way to his bike, ignoring Erwin calling him from the doorway. "I'll be there in five minutes," he promised, hanging up.

He made it in two.

When he arrived in the waiting room, all three of Petra's friends (our friends, his brain argued) were waiting for him, and Erd stood up when he saw him, running over to meet him as he walked to the chairs by Gunter and Auruo.

"What happened?" Levi asked harshly, eyes steeled.

They shifted uncomfortably. "We're not totally sure," Erd confessed.

Levi looked at him incredulously. "You're not f***king sure?"

Erd flinched. "We weren't with her; Auruo found her first—"

Levi walked up to Auruo grabbing a chair and straddling it to face the man. "What. Happened." He asked a final time.

Auruo swallowed, his face haunted. "I… we were on the zip line. We'd gone a dozen times, we were all used to it, I don't— we all went down one last time; I went first, Petra went second. She… she didn't reach the bottom, so we went looking and she…" Auruo swallowed again, looking like he was going to cry. His voice was tight and choked. "She'd hit a tree. One next to the line. She wasn't breathing! Her spine was—God, I don't…"

Levi clenched his fists, his whole body tensing as Auruo put his head in his hands.

_I'm glad you called… it's good to hear your voice._

He had just talked to her last night! He was no stranger to tragedy, to loss. But this was different; Petra had never come close to Levi's old life, she'd lived in the light, she shouldn't…

_Goodnight, Levi._

He should've told her to be careful, to watch her back ("her spine was…"), something. Instead, all he could say was that he'd bring the goddamn pizza.

_I'll see you tomorrow._

Would she? Was that conversation the last time he'd ever hear her voice? He'd just spoken to her last night! He'd been over for coffee on Wednesday! She was just here! Levi's throat tightened.

She was just here!


	11. In Which Petra is Hospitalized

Chapter 10

_"These are the words I held back as I was leaving too soon."_

\--

Hanji arrived just over an hour later, panting heavily, her hair and clothes in disarray; when Gunter called her, she had been on her way home in a cab, still over an hour away. As soon as she got the story from Gunter, she had begun to scream at the driver, telling him to 'drive faster, or I will end you with nothing but a pair of forceps and a resection knife'. She blasted into the waiting room like a human hurricane and zoned in on the group waiting for Petra and made a beeline straight for them. A lanky brunette man came running in after her, looking just as stressed as she did, muttering something about 'at least pay the cab fare, after almost strangling the driver'. Hanji had ignored him and gone straight to Erd, who gave her the basic rundown. After repeating the news to Hanji and Moblit Baner (Hanji's 'assistant', which explained why he looked so stressed), they took seats with the rest of the group, and the heavy cloud of anxiety settled over the group once more.

Hanji asked for the specifics that no one else in the group bothered to ask about; things like 'what did her neck look like', 'how much blood and from where', 'how long until she started breathing again' and the like. As someone with actually experience in human anatomy and biology, she told them that depending on what parts of the spine and neck were damaged, on how well her helmet had protected her brain, how long her brain had gone without oxygen—all of these could contribute to Petra's diagnosis, they could be the make-it or break-it points in the surgery. No one was sure if this was reassuring or more depressing.

By this time, the sun was starting to set, and the doctors still didn't have any news on Petra. Levi had snapped out of his funk pretty quickly and proceeded to give the meanest and most murderous glare any of them had ever seen to anyone who dared to so much as breathe loudly. He was one of the ones that had been more irritated by Hanji's observations and glared at her more often than anyone else.

The sky was almost dark by the time one of Petra's doctors came out to update them; at that point, everyone was ready to snap (Levi was ready to start snapping _necks_ , if his expression were an accurate gauge). He introduced himself (no one particularly cared) and told them the damage.

"Well, the good news is that there was very little damage done to her head; her helmet was strapped on securely, and that probably saved her life." There were several flinches around the group. "Her spine was thrown out of alignment—the discs had to be corrected, and some of them were fractured, along with her sixth and seventh ribs. We estimated four more bruised ribs. We did what we could, but another issue here is her spleen."

Hanji's head snapped up from where she'd been staring at the floor. "Her spleen?"

The doctor jerked back in surprise at the intensity on Hanji's face. "Yes." He coughed. "Yes. Her spleen ruptured on impact, causing all sorts of problems, including hemorrhaging in the lower back; her whole spleen was destroyed, and we needed to perform an immediate splenectomy.

"We corrected the spinal alignment, as I said, and fixed up her ribs—they've been set and wrapped, and they should heal up with time. She has a bad concussion, and honestly that's my greatest worry."

"I thought you said her helmet protected her!" Erd piped up, panicked.

"Ah," the doctor was flustered, adjusting his glasses. "Well, that was true for the most part, yes. If she hadn't been wearing her helmet, she most likely would have died instantly."

"She what?!"

"Yes, right, the concussion!" The doctor hurried to move the subject back. "There was quite of bit of intracranial pressure, and we were able to bring the swelling down with medication and control it, so thankfully we didn't need to operate on that. Her brain was rattled though, and it's still a toss-up whether or not Miss Ral will have any lasting problems from this."

"But she'll live, right?" Hanji pressed. "She'll be okay, right?"

"Well… there's a good chance that she'll live, yes, but with head injuries like this, you just never know. Nothing is ever certain with injuries of this nature."

"…Can we see her?" Auruo asked quietly.

The doctor hesitated; "Very briefly, yes. You'll have to be quiet, though. She's out of the ICU, but we have her under strict observation. She's in room…" he checked Petra's chart on the clipboard he was nervously fingering. "357."

Levi was the first to move, striding purposefully down the hallway and up the stairs, not waiting for the elevator. The others hastened to move after him, jogging up the stairs to try and keep up. "For someone who's so short," Hanji wheezed, "he can really move!" Normally, Levi would lay Hanji out flat for a comment like that, but now he just couldn't bring himself to care, focused solely on his destination. When Levi reached Petra's room, he hesitated for the briefest moment, hand outstretched before the doorknob, before grasping it and gently opening the door, stepping inside.

Levi had always known that Petra was small; she was shorter than him, a blessing if ever there was one. But she looked too small now, all pale skin and crisp bandages and clear tubes. It wasn't natural, and it certainly wasn't right. Petra didn't belong here in this cold room, this sterile static environment. Petra was hazelnut coffee and whip-crack humor; she was late nights studying and ranting the next morning about sadistic teachers; she was kind smiles, light hands on his shoulders and a warm weight on his back as he drove through the city. She wasn't this cold and clinical number on a chart.

Silently, he sunk into the chair beside her, gazing at her pale face. There were dark bruises on her face, a split lip (three stitches to seal it up), and bandages wrapped around her head. _At least she still has her hair,_ Levi absently noted. He knew of people that got cranial swelling so bad that their heads had to be shaved and then small holes had to be drilled into the skull to relieve the pressure. It was a small comfort, but one that he was grateful for nonetheless.

The others had filed into the room, and Levi noted Emily crying quietly. Everybody said something to Petra's sleeping form and filed out, keeping their word to be quick. Hanji was the last one in the room besides Levi. She came up to Petra's other side, running her hand through Petra's hair without touching her head and placed a small affectionate kiss on Petra's uninjured cheek before leaving the room.

Levi knew he was supposed to leave, but that was the last thing that he wanted to do. It was so unnatural to see Petra so still. The closest he had ever seen to this was when she was sick; she had fallen asleep in the middle of their conversation, and Levi had thrown a blanket over her and cleaned her apartment before heading home. She had been a still sleeper, but as congested as she had been, she made a small snuffling noise as she slept, and she would mutter occasionally in her sleep. A few weeks before, she would have been a stranger, and Levi would have found it irritating. Since it was Petra, he found it oddly endearing.

Just a few short months ago, Levi wouldn't have cared what happened to Petra. She was just another of the mindless students in Erwin's class, one of those irritating and entitled sheep that Levi hated so much. Over the course of coffee, pizza, and study guides, Levi now found it hard to go back to that apathetic state. Petra had begun to mean something to him; what that was, he didn't know just yet. He just knew that he cared now.


	12. In Which a House is Not a Home

Chapter 11

_"There I was again tonight, same old tired lonely place."_

\--

The damn clock on the wall was driving Levi slowly insane. It ticked down steadily with that same hollow noise, and if he had to listen to it much longer he'd shoot it. It made him wish that he still carried his gun with him… almost. That would certainly get him banned from the hospital and even Erwin would have trouble getting him out of that one.

Levi sighed through his nose heavily, running a hand through his hair as he glanced at the still form of Petra on the hospital bed. It had been three days, and she still hadn't woken up. As much as he hated to admit it, the lack of Petra throughout his day was affecting him. Coffee that he made or bought tasted bitter and disgusting; conversations with other people were irritating and boring. He had even crashed on the couch at her apartment last night when he went to visit Hanji; they had eaten takeout and bitched about annoying college students and hospital staff, then they had a few beers and Levi had taken over the couch, not wanting to go back home to face Erwin, who had been switching back and forth between pity and gentle 'you need to do something with yourself'. It had been fraying Levi's nerves worse than the damn clock.

As much as he hated to admit it, Petra had wormed her way into his daily routine so deeply that he couldn't even function like he used to, and he both liked and hated it.

What the hell does that even mean? He wondered tiredly. He'd given up trying to find coffee that tasted good, deciding that he'd been spoiled beyond repair or recall by Petra's god-sent brew. He'd been wondering about that lately, what Petra meant to him. Obviously she was more than a stranger now; he couldn't give her up like coffee, he was too invested in whatever the hell relationship the two of them had.

They were friends, he was fairly certain. Friends went out for pizza and coffee, they cleaned each other's apartments when the other was sick and helped each other study (and by each other, he meant he corrected her dumbass mistakes). He was pretty sure that friends stayed with each other during visiting hours in the hospital, too, and felt comfortable in each other's homes.

Levi didn't know what it was like to have a home, to have a place to let his guard down, not until he moved in with Erwin. He had never had someone to open the door for him, to turn their back to him and feel so comfortable in his presence. Erwin had given him that, given him the spare bedroom and the spare key to his home.

He had been grateful to Erwin, even though he hadn't been very good at showing it though. The period of adjustment to domestic life had been anything but smooth; Levi had lashed out almost daily, snarling and swearing. There had been a lot of slamming doors, too. That was mostly because Levi was still testing the boundaries of his newfound freedom, baiting Erwin to come after him and tear open the door. To his credit, Erwin never entered Levi's room without permission. If he had (though he didn't know it), Levi would have left.

It was that patience that allowed Levi to adjust, to accept the new life that Erwin had offered to him. For the first time in a lifetime, Levi had a home.

A house was not a home. A home was when Levi opened the front door, smelled burning toast, and had to rescue the kitchen and yell at Erwin. Home was getting a call saying, "Levi, I forgot my lecture notes by the computer; could you maybe bring them over? Please?" Home was beating Erwin at every first-person shooter video game that they owned and then going out for Indian food to spare the kitchen further trauma.

Lately, Levi had been arguing with Erwin, had been reverting to their original pattern. His home was becoming a house again, and he had been quietly panicking. He couldn't go back to the way he'd been, he wouldn't. But he didn't know how to stop it from happening, he couldn't pick up the pieces quickly enough.

And then, in the middle of the breakdown, home had come back in new pieces, repairing the damage done by harsh words and slammed doors; it had saved Levi without even trying.

Home had become an apartment full of body parts and leftover pizza. Home had become mugs of hazelnut coffee and witty comebacks. It was the smell of coffee, mint shampoo, and library books.

Home was Erwin. But now, home had also become Petra. Her smile, her laugh, her touch, everything that was Petra Ral had become Levi's home.

Levi reached over to Petra and ran his fingers gently through her hair, being careful not to disturb the bandages wrapped around her head. _I won't lose that,_ he vowed to himself. _I won't lose her._

He picked up a book, a criminal justice case study that he'd snagged from Hanji and Petra's apartment on the way over here. There were notes in the margins in Petra's neat handwriting, underlining key concepts and evidences. It made him smirk when he found one that said "L said to study this for test." So she had listened to him.

An hour later, when Levi was mostly done with the book, a soft knock sounded on the doorframe. Levi's eyes snapped up to the intruder, widening slightly in surprise as he saw Erwin hovering in the doorway. He was still in his dress clothes and carrying a briefcase; he must have just finished up at work.

"Can I come in?" He was doing it again, Levi realized; Erwin had reverted to that nervous state where he had to ask permission to enter a room that wasn't even Levi's. He could feel the bits of home crumbling again, and this time Petra wasn't able to stick the pieces back in place—this thought made Levi irrationally upset, and he shook it from his mind.

"Fine," he said, giving Erwin permission to enter Petra's hospital room. Erwin nodded his thanks with a tight smile and walked in, sliding into the chair across from Levi's; Hanji had set up the chair there the night before when she visited and then didn't put it back. Levi didn't bother to replace it in its spot by the window; moving it made it feel like no one else would come to see Petra.

Erwin set his briefcase down with a quiet sigh, clasping his hands awkwardly in his lap. In the three days that Petra had been hospitalized, Levi hadn't spoken to Erwin. He came home when visiting hours ended and holed up in his room, sleeping and reading. By the time Erwin woke up in the morning, Levi was gone, out getting breakfast with Hanji or Gunter, Auruo, and Erd. Last night, he hadn't gone home at all, staying with Hanji instead (who was taking this whole thing even worse than he was). Levi didn't know what Erwin thought of all this; truthfully, Levi didn't want their relationship at home to deteriorate more than it already had when there was no one to pick up the pieces. He felt like his whole home would crumble around him if he were anywhere but by Petra's side. He would never tell Erwin as much; he didn't fully understand it himself. He just knew where he needed to be.

"Erd Gin told me about what happened," Erwin said at last. "He, Bossard, and Shulz were with her—Bossard in particular seems rather distraught."

"I know," Levi said simply. He didn't need Erwin to tell him what had happened; he'd gotten the play-by-play. He kept his eyes on the page he was reading; Erwin didn't seem too keen to look him in the eye, and Levi felt very much the same.

"…I was surprised, honestly," Erwin continued, staring somewhat awkwardly at the sheets over Petra's legs. "I've never seen you take such an interest in someone before. I didn't realize you were so close."

 _Yeah, me neither,_ Levi thought absently.

"She's a good student." It was obvious that Erwin didn't quite know what to say, and Levi wondered why he was even there in the first place. "Hard worker. She gets good grades in the class, she's very talented. She'll do well when she graduates."

"…Why are you here?" Levi asked, marking his page and setting aside the book to look Erwin in the eye.

Erwin paused, and then sighed heavily, looking up to meet Levi's eyes. "I'm sorry."

Whatever Levi had been expecting, it wasn't that. He was expecting disappointment, frustration, maybe irritation. "…For what?"

Erwin sighed again, slouching in his chair, a weary look in his eyes. "I've been… pressuring you too much, haven't I?" He looked Levi in the eye and went on without waiting for an answer. "I worry that you won't ever be more than a data entry specialist, that you won't push yourself; because you could be anything, Levi! You're brilliant, you're driven, you could go anywhere! But you don't seem to want to, and that just… I've always known very clearly what I wanted to do, and I think I pushed that mindset onto you without considering how you felt about that. I'm sorry."

Levi was at a loss for words; Erwin never apologized. He did what he thought was right and dealt with the consequences, but he never admitted to doing something wrong. It had been a point of contention and struggle between the two of them since they had met. He didn't know what to say to this bomb that Erwin had just dropped. Was this a good thing, or would it make things worse? It was an unprecedented event, and Levi didn't quite know how to categorize it.

Erwin continued on, his gaze flitting back to the sheets. "It's not that I'm angry about it; it's just that you have so much potential, and you have a second chance that you never thought you'd get. Having that chance, I thought that maybe… I don't know, maybe that you'd just shoot off and get a degree, a steady job, everything you couldn't have because of the gang, and I just… I should have asked and I didn't."

Levi's throat tightened; every argument, every fight—they could have avoided this. The fleeting thought that Petra would have been able to tell him that, to fix it, crossed his mind. "I didn't know what I wanted," he confessed quietly. He hated talking about his feelings, but if there was ever a time when he needed to, it was now. Almost without thought, his hand reached for Petra's, gently grasping it for reassurance. "I just… it was better. Even though I wasn't doing anything, it was better because I could just focus on who I was. I've never been able to do that."

He ran his free hand through his hair, frustrated, avoiding Erwin's eyes. "I had something constant, I had a home. I didn't want to change anything, because that would change too." He felt like an idiot, saying such stupid things, but he felt like if he didn't say it then, he'd never get it out of his system. He glanced over at Erwin, who looked completely floored; which wasn't too much of a surprise, Levi figured, since that was the most he'd ever talked about his feelings.

"Levi, I—"

"Don't think I want some chick-flick shit going on here," Levi warned sternly, sliding a half-hearted glare at his roommate. "You try to hug me and I will end you."

Erwin's eyes lost their surprise and softened marginally, a small smile on his face. "Duly noted."

Levi could feel pieces shifting back into place; just a few pieces of debris here and there, barely noticeable. But it was a step in the right direction, and that was enough for him. His eyes softened a bare fraction as he absently ran his thumb over Petra's hand. _It's something._

Erwin left a few minutes later, after dragging a promise from Levi that he would come home for dinner that night. Levi scoffed at him, called him a sentimental old woman, and promised that yes, he would be home for a no-doubt toxic meal.

Leaving a little emotionally lighter than he'd arrived, Erwin closed the door softly behind him, taking one last glance at Levi, who was reading the case study Erwin had assigned a few weeks previously, running a hand absent-mindedly through Petra's ginger blonde hair. The older man wondered if Levi even realized he was doing it.

"Is he still in there?" Erwin turned to see the new arrival down the hallway.

"I don't think we've met?" He asked in confusion, staring. The woman in the hallway was walking towards him with a small smile, hands in her pockets. He hadn't seen her before, but she seemed to recognize him.

"I'm Hanji," she introduced herself, coming to stand next to him; she was a good six inches shorter than him, but seemed anything but intimidated. "Hanji Zoe. I'm Petra's roommate."

"Oh, I see," Erwin held out his free hand for a handshake. "It's nice to meet you, Miss Zoe."

Hanji barked a laugh, giving him a firm handshake. "Just Hanji. Are you here to see Petra? She's your student, right?"

"Yes," he affirmed. "I came to see her; and Levi, they seem to be a packaged deal these days."

Hanji grinned, her eyes shining behind square-rimmed glasses. As happy as she looked, she looked equally tired, dark circles under her eyes and skin that looked just a little too pale (though it was hard to tell, as Erwin had no frame of reference for this woman).

"Would you like to go downstairs for coffee? You look like you might need some," Erwin asked boldly. Hanji looked fit to collapse, and he'd rather avoid something like that. She looked like she was running on fumes and little else.

"That sounds great," Hanji acquiesced, practically snatching his arm and heading back down the hallway to the elevator. "The coffee here is God-awful compared to Petra baby's, but it's pumped with caffeine!"

Erwin was taken aback by Hanji's forwardness and simply allowed himself to be pulled along by this crazy woman with the dark brown ponytail. They caught the elevator and Hanji let go, putting her hand back in her hoodie pocket to join the other; she didn't seem embarrassed by her actions, she continued to hum off-key, bright eyes glancing around the elevator. They reached the ground floor and Hanji grabbed his sleeve again, tugging him towards the cafeteria and chatting all the while. "I tried to get Levi to drink some coffee here, but he's been boycotting all coffee that isn't Petra's. We've both been spoiled rotten by her and her godlike coffee," Hanji laughed. "She really does make the best. She should charge for that stuff… Ah! Here we are." She let go of Erwin's sleeve and jogged to the end of the line in the cafeteria, leaving Erwin to catch up.

They ordered their drinks (a triple shot espresso for Hanji, straight black for Erwin) and waited off to the side for the barista to mix up their orders. "It's weird seeing Levi so quiet," Hanji said, grabbing Erwin's attention. "I've gotten used to him sassing me and teasing Petra, I don't know quite what to do with him when he's this subdued."

"I didn't realize he was so close to the two of you," Erwin admitted. "Admittedly, we haven't been speaking much lately." It felt good to just tell Hanji what was happening; they didn't know each other well enough to judge each other, and there was a kind of liberation in that that was loosening his tongue beyond the normal level.

"He and Petra met almost two months ago, now," Hanji revealed. "She went to your office for help on a paper and found Levi instead." Erwin vaguely recalled that day, seeing Petra and Levi huddled over her paper in the hallway, Levi gesturing grandly, a spark in his eyes that Erwin hadn't seen in a long time. "He came over for coffee a few days later and the two of them gradually started to spend more and more time together." The barista called their names and they collected their coffees with polite thanks. Hanji led them over to a tall table with stools by the window, sitting down with a soft sigh.

She took a deep drink and looked Erwin in the eye. "I didn't actually meet him until about two weeks ago, when we all went out for pizza. He was really comfortable with Petra; from what she'd told me about him, I was expecting someone a little more prickly."

"He usually is," Erwin confirmed. "It took a few weeks before he'd say a single word to me."

Hanji raised her eyebrows. "Really now? That must have been awkward, you two being roommates."

Erwin smiled slightly. "That was quite a while before we roomed together. I met him when I was on the force."

"You were a cop?" Hanji asked, curiosity lighting up her eyes like Christmas lights.

"I was," Erwin confirmed, taking a sip of his coffee. It really was awful, but he could already feel the caffeine buzzing in his veins. "I was with the NSA for a time before that, and then I was injured in the line of duty and retired to the local gang task force."

"How old are you?" Hanji asked forwardly, tilting her had in curiosity. Erwin was quickly learning that things like tact and social niceties meant nothing to Hanji, not in the face of curiosity.

"Thirty-seven."

"That's awfully young for a government agent turned cop turned professor!"

"I suppose it is," he agreed with a small smile.

"So Levi was a gang-banger, huh. I suppose that isn't too much of a surprise."

"…I never said he was—"

"It wasn't hard to figure out," Hanji said with a grin. "How long has he been out?"

"Three years, almost," Erwin revealed. He'd never talked about this with anyone before; no one had ever gotten close enough to Levi to ask.

"Hmm." Hanji hummed curiously, taking another drink. "How did the two of you meet?"

Erwin's mind flashed back to those earliest days of his friendship with Levi, who had been a rail-thin too-pale twenty-one year old kid, who glared with enough ice to freeze a man where he stood and would sooner slit your throat than speak to you. He should have just arrested him, but he took him in instead; wore him down slowly, convinced him that there was more for him, that he could be anything. He gave him a choice. It had taken months; with the information Levi revealed to the police, they were able to crush the crime ring from the inside, crippling it beyond repair. It was that choice that had allowed Levi to leave the streets—the courts (and some "creative" paperwork) had granted clemency for his help and he and Erwin had moved to a new town for a fresh start, with Erwin teaching and Levi figuring out what he wanted to do with his life.

"He was on the streets; he was so smart, he could do so much better," Erwin revealed quietly. "I just paved the way for him to make the choice on his own."

Hanji 'hm'd again, and Erwin felt like she saw everything that he wasn't saying, like she simply knew without him having to say a word. He got that feeling sometimes with Levi, and he found the familiarity comforting.

"When we all went out for pizza," Hanji started, drawing Erwin out of his thoughts. "Levi was the last to arrive. He walked in, saw where we were sitting, and just honed right in on Petra. He walked over, sat down right next to her, and didn't leave her side all night. I thought maybe he was just nervous about interacting with the rest of us, but he fit in just fine, made friends real easily." Hanji glanced blankly out the window. "Petra had told me a little bit about him before we actually met, made him sound a whole lot nicer than he probably thinks he is, but that's just how Petra is. I've seen him a few times on campus, though, before we met. He never talked with anyone, just sort of shouldered his way through the masses to get out of there as quickly as he could. He obviously wasn't a people person; but he seemed totally at ease with Petra."

"I've never seen him actively seek out someone's company like this," Erwin agreed. "It takes a long time before Levi fully lets his guard down around someone, but he had no reservations about visiting Petra. They seem very close."

"They do," Hanji agreed. "I think, once Petra gets better—and I have full faith that she will—that those two will just get closer."

Erwin smiled at her, taking another drink. Hanji grinned in return, downing the rest of her espresso in a single gulp. "Aaah!" she exclaimed. "That hit the spot! I feel alive again! I haven't slept in days, not since Petra's accident."

Erwin started in surprise, setting down his mug. "You haven't slept in three days? How are you functioning?"

"Caffeine." Hanji said simply. "A metric crap-ton of caffeine. And science."

Science? "I… see."

She snorted, smirking at him. "No you don't."

"I don't," he admitted. "Are you a scientist?"

Her eyes lit up with an almost-maniacal passion. "Yes! I'm finishing up school this semester and then I'm off to grad school! It's so exciting!"

She was younger than he had originally though, in that case. "What do you study?" Even as he was asking, Erwin had a feeling he was going to regret that simple question.

Hanji's eyes lit up, a crazed grin spreading across her face. Erwin was already regretting asking.


	13. In Which Levi is Determined

Chapter 12

_"The lingering question kept me up, 2 AM, who do you love? I wondered till I'm wide awake."_

\--

When the door to Petra's hospital room opened and loud chatter entered the room, Levi jerked awake in surprise, the book in his lap falling to the ground. He had finished the case study the day before, when visiting hours had ended. He'd silently bid Petra goodnight and gone home for dinner with Erwin. It had been… nice, speaking with Erwin again. Erwin looked even more at peace than when he'd left the hospital room that afternoon, and Levi hadn't quite been able to pinpoint why. They'd both gone to bed that night on good terms, and when Levi woke up the next morning, he started the coffee pot for Erwin (who had just begun waking up, from the sounds in his bedroom and the bathroom) before leaving for breakfast with Hanji.

He'd nodded good morning to the nurses, who had all come to recognize him, before settling down at Petra's bedside with a copy of _Crime and Punishment_ that he'd snagged from Erwin's bookshelf on the way out of the house that morning. He'd gotten a good hundred pages in before he'd started to nod off. His energy levels had declined drastically in the past week, ever since he'd stopped drinking coffee cold turkey. His body was used to the jump from the caffeine, and even though he wasn't doing anything remotely energy-consuming, it still took its toll.

As the book hit the floor, Levi spun around to find the cause of the interruption, eyes widening in surprise as Gunter, Auruo, and Erd walked in, carrying grocery bags and a drink holder full of coffee cups between them.

"Hey, Captain!" Erd greeted him with a smile; they were keeping that joke alive, not letting it rest. Levi had given up trying to get them to stop addressing him like that. He'd begun to subconsciously answer to the title and resigned himself to his fate.

"What are you doing?" Levi asked bluntly, eyebrows drawing together in confusion.

"We brought lunch," Auruo revealed, holding up a bag. Levi could smell a soft spicy scent coming from the bags and his stomach growled with neglect. His eyes slid to the clock and found that it was already well past lunch time; he'd slept longer than he thought.

"We bought some curry from that little shop down the street," Gunter informed him, pulling over the rolling trays in the room to form a larger table in the center of the room. "We weren't sure what kind you liked, but we thought you might like the Masaman Curry, so that's what we got."

"And coffee!" Erd pointed out. At the frown forming on Levi's face, he added, "it's not up to par with Petra's, that's for sure, but it's a decent second place. And no offense, but you look like you could use some."

"Tch," Levi scoffed after a moment of surprise. "Eating in a hospital room? Did the restaurant kick you out or something?"

"As if!" Auruo scoffed. "Our manners are perfect."

"The waitress was kinda scary, though," Erd admitted. "The cashier was practically a goddess, she was so sweet! Her coworker was crazy possessive of her though, even though we weren't trying anything."

"We figured you could use the company," Gunter revealed, unpacking the food as Auruo distributed the coffee and Erd moved to check Petra's chart at the foot of her bed. "Plus, Petra will be pretty pissed when she wakes up if we've been neglecting her." He shot a fond smile to the girl in the bed. "She always likes to eat with company, so we figured we'd indulge her as much as you."

"I don't need company," Levi insisted even as he accepted the take-out container of curry, the sweet scent of cashews and pork reaching his nose.

"You're not fooling anybody," Auruo said, handing him a coffee. "But nice try."

"You seem to forget that you're our friend just as much as Petra is," Erd said kindly as he handed a packet of plastic silverware to Levi.

Levi hadn't forgotten; he'd just underestimated how much the group had cared. He graced them with a small smirk and dug into the curry in front of him with renewed gusto. As they ate, Auruo and Erd updated Levi on outside and campus news, telling him noteworthy news events and reminding him that finals were drawing nearer.

"Petra's going to flip her lid if she's not better in time for finals," Auruo muttered through a mouthful of Pad Thai.

"I will not be the one to tell her she's failing classes this semester," Erd said with a shudder. Kind and small as she was, Petra could be a rampaging Valkyrie when the situation called for it, and no one wanted to invoke her wrath if they could help it.

"Let's just pray that she wakes up soon," Gunter said only half-jokingly, taking a drink.

They continued to laugh and joke throughout their lunch hour, regaling Levi with tales of Petra's antics throughout their college acquaintance and during the Thanksgiving break the previous year with the Ral family. When it was time for them to get back to campus, they cleaned up the trash and said their fond farewells to Petra ("be good," Erd had whispered as he ruffled Petra's hair affectionately and gave her a brotherly kiss on her forehead). With another round of farewells to Levi and the reminder that he needed to take care of himself better—they were worried about him, dammit—the group left, leaving Levi and Petra in the silent room with the lingering scent of curry.

Levi picked up his book again, trying to focus on the words printed there; it was a losing battle, and he soon gave up. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, taking a sideways glance at Petra's face. It had been nice to have their friends visit for lunch; to be honest, he was jealous of their absolute faith in Petra's recovery. Levi had known too many people that were there one moment and gone the next; people that had spoken to him, said good morning, and then they were dead before lunch. Just because someone was still alive didn't mean that they would stay that way.

He couldn't help but hope, though. He hadn't cared about any of those people, hadn't cared whether they lived or died. He cared now, and a childish part of him reasoned that caring meant something, that it made the difference between life and death. He hadn't dealt with death like that since his younger days in the gangs on the streets, the days before Erwin, before Petra and coffee and group dinners at pizza restaurants. He was his own person back then, not tied to anything. It had been hell allowing himself to form that attachment with Erwin, convincing himself to let his guard down and let someone in.

Erwin was the first person he'd cared about, and it had been a rocky road to that plateau in their friendship. It wasn't easy for Levi to bring himself to care about people, but when he met Petra it had seemed natural, as if he was supposed to befriend her. It hadn't stopped at Petra—offering to look over her paper had opened a floodgate of friendships and attachments that Levi hadn't expected: Hanji with her strange fascination with science and bodies, Erd and his brotherly tendencies, Auruo and his bravado and joking, Gunter with his compassionate nature, Emily with her sweet smiles and home cooking. Levi didn't have friends; and then he had six, all at once.

Attachments used to be something to avoid, Levi reminisced, running a hand through Petra's short hair. Getting attached meant having a weakness. The old Levi would have been disgusted, he thought with a smirk. But the choice between strength in solidarity and weakness in comfort and warmth had never been so clear as it was at that moment. Levi would shout his weakness from the rooftops if it meant staying with Petra, with his friends and his new life. He liked where he was, he realized. He liked who he was, and it was such a novel concept that it sent him reeling for a moment.

With that shock and solidifying realization, Levi was determined to fight for what he'd gained these past few months. Petra would fight to come back to them; and while she did that, Levi had a battle of his own to fight.


	14. In Which Levi Networks

Chapter 13

_"This night is flawless, don't you let it go. I'm wonderstruck, dancing around all alone."_

\--

When Hanji went to visit Petra the next morning (the fifth day of Petra's hospital stay), she expected to find Levi at her bedside like he always was. What she found instead was Levi's motorcycle helmet, his leather jacket, and a copy of Crime and Punishment, a bookmark stuck haphazardly in the pages about halfway through the text.

"…Huh." She set down the vase of flowers she'd brought (snapdragons and wild lilies, some of Petra's favorites) and sat down next to Petra to excitedly tell her all about her day, stroking her hair all the while. When she'd talked her fill, she went about tidying up the room (though there wasn't much to do). It felt odd being there by herself; Levi was a constant in the small room, his presence as reliable as Petra's. His things were there, but he had yet to return, and Hanji wondered where he'd wandered off to; it couldn't have been too far if his helmet was still there. "I'm gonna go and grab some coffee, m'kay?" she told Petra, planting a kiss on her forehead. "I'll be back in a bit."

Hanji made her way down to the cafeteria, cheerfully greeting the staff that she passed on her way there. She ordered her customary triple espresso, made casual conversation with the barista as her drink was prepared, and then started making her way back to Petra's room when out of the corner of her eye, she saw Levi at one of the tables near the window wall on the far side of the cafeteria, far away from visitors. He was speaking emphatically into his phone, sandwich forgotten on the table in front of him. As Hanji made her way over to him, he finished his conversation and hung up the phone, slumping in his seat and rubbing at his temples. The closer she got, Hanji was able to make out a notepad and pen on the table before him, names and numbers scribbled down in Levi's neat slanted script.

"Hey there," she greeted, sitting down opposite Levi, who looked up from his hands and frowned at her.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Visiting Petra, obviously," Hanji replied with a pout. "What kind of heartless roommate do you take me for?"

"I meant here, in the cafeteria, at my table."

"I came for coffee and I saw you sitting here, so I decided to come over and say hello to my friend. Silly Levi, try to keep up."

He scowled, the effect somewhat ruined by his mussed hair and the dark circles under his eyes. Hanji winced in sympathy; "you look like you lost quite a bit of sleep last night," she guessed, taking a gulp of scalding hot coffee.

Levi scoffed. "I was busy. I'll sleep when I'm dead."

"By the way you're handling your lack of sleep after one day, that might not be too far off," Hanji speculated with raised eyebrows.

"Some of us have busy lives, Shitty Glasses," Levi snarled half-heartedly, taking a vicious bite out of his sandwich, pocketing the notepad and pen.

"What were you so busy with?" Hanji asked, still snickering over Levi's nickname for her.

"Nothing that you need to know about," he retorted. "It's none of your business."

"Aren't you an angry prickly pear this morning…"

"How about I take those glasses and shove them—"

"A really angry prickly pear!"

"Oh shut up!"

Hanji laughed as Levi huffed and went back to his food, muttering under his breath.

"So how's Petra doing today?" Hanji asked, setting her coffee down on the table. "Any improvement?"

"The neurologist was by this morning," Levi informed her tiredly. "He said that her brainwaves were indicative of someone sleeping rather than in a coma, so here's hoping that's a good sign."

"It is!" Hanji enthused, grinning widely. "That's great news, Levi!"

Levi seemed to lose some of the tension in his face and body, his eyes softening fractionally. "It damn well better be. Five days is long enough to make us wait."

"No kidding. Petra's probably going to be extremely tired and confused when she wakes up, so be patient with her," Hanji lectured sternly, wagging a finger at Levi, who just rolled his eyes. "When she wakes up, she'll probably go back to sleep right after, and probably won't even remember anything that happens while she's awake the first few times. She might, but don't be surprised if she doesn't."

"Yes, doctor," Levi snarked. "I'll be sure to play nice."

Hanji barked out a laugh. "I'll believe that when I see it. Now—Petra's getting lonely up there all by herself, so let's relocate, shall we?" Hanji hopped up and grabbed her drink, Levi following a beat later, picking up the wrapper from his sandwich and throwing it away on the way out of the cafeteria, fingering the cell phone in his pocket.

When they got back to the room, Hanji pranced over to Petra's bed and started chatting to her again. "Hey Petra baby! Guess who I ran into downstairs? Levi was being a stupid-head and left you all alone up here! What an asshole!" She laughed with a smile.

Levi scoffed. "Don't listen to her," he countered. "She's crazy and we all know it." He didn't feel weird about talking to Petra's comatose form now that the doctors said she was closer to waking up. He had gone through a period where he doubted if she would (to be honest, he still had his doubts), but he felt more confident now that there was actual medical reasoning backing up that feeble hope.

At that point, he was mostly just impatient for Petra to wake the fuck up already. She'd been out of it for five days at that point, and Levi was sure that as soon as she woke up he'd give her the vocal bitch slap of her life for putting him through hell. _As soon as she wakes up, I swear to God…_

Levi sat down in his customary chair as Hanji continued to babble to Petra about anything and everything under the ever-loving sun. She would occasionally drag Levi into the conversation ("hey Levi, who do you think would win?" and "Levi, don't you think that would be so cute?"); he grunted and hummed in agreement, not really paying attention to the nonsense streaming from Hanji's mouth. He took out his book and starting reading where he'd left off, idly fingering his makeshift bookmark (a receipt from the cafeteria downstairs). He was tired, but his body had begun to adjust to the lack of caffeine in his diet. He felt it was somewhat of a waste for his body to adjust, since as soon as Petra was back on her feet, he'd be drinking coffee again. He wondered why everyone else was still drinking coffee, especially Hanji, when there was no coffee palatable after drinking what Petra made.

"—vi. Hellooo, anyone home?"

Levi glanced up from his book. "What do you want, Hanji?"

The other woman snickered at his irritated expression. "I asked who you were talking to on the phone earlier, down in the cafeteria."

"Tch," Levi scoffed. "None of your business, Shitty Glasses."

Hanji laughed again. "He came up with a new nickname for me," she explained to Petra, snickering. "He thinks he's so funny."

"Shut up!" Levi snarled half-heartedly, throwing a box of tissues at Hanji's head, which she smacked out of the air with ease. "If you're just here to torment me, get out, I don't have time for this."

"Oh?" Hanji asked, curious. "What's so important that you don't have time to spend with the lovely me?"

Levi's scowl deepened, if it was at all possible. "Really important shit that DOESN'T CONCERN YOU," he clarified.

Hanji blinked. "Wow. You really miss Petra's coffee. You need sleep."

Levi stared at her a moment later, then got out of his chair and walked out of the room.

"Wait! L-Levi?! Where are you going?!" Hanji called after him, scrambling over to the door.

"Away from you," Levi called over his shoulder. "Keep an eye on Petra." He disappeared around the corner and Hanji stood awkwardly in the doorway before moving back to Petra's bedside. She twiddled her thumbs, adjusted the flowers and opened and closed her mouth several times before speaking.

"…Well. That was a thing."

\--

Levi ended up having lunch at a small diner on the street corner by the hospital, not wanting to be too far away if something happened with Petra. He sighed as he sat down in a small booth in the corner, rolling his shoulders stiffly; he had been spending too much time sitting in that stupid hospital chair, and it had started to affect him.

He had needed to get away from Hanji for an hour or two; she was his friend (it still felt like such a foreign word), but she was difficult to deal with, especially in stressful times. Levi knew she was just as worried and stressed as the rest of them—she just had a different way of expressing it. Levi holed up in Petra's room and read, snapping at people and coiling tighter and tighter until he snapped. Hanji became more excited, trying to occupy her mind with all sorts of new theories and ideas, anything to keep her mind off of the problem at hand (Petra's coma). Erd had been spending more and more time studying, constantly sighing and spacing out. Gunter went running, hoping the endorphins would calm his frayed nerves and give him something else to focus on.

Levi occasionally wondered about Auruo; he was the most affected, having been the one to find Petra after the accident. He had gotten a little more withdrawn and hunched over, looking almost defeated most of the time. Levi knew he felt guilty about what had happened—he suggested the zip line, he went down before Petra that last time, he waited to find her; there were a million and one 'what ifs' that Auruo was very obviously filling his mind with, and Levi was almost… concerned about how he was coping.

 _How stupid is that, being concerned about someone else when I'm falling to fucking pieces over this shit,_ Levi griped internally. He wasn't taking this well—he knew he wasn't—but he didn't know what to do. He'd never cared enough about anyone to worry like this, not even Erwin.

The waitress skated over to him, brown ponytail bouncing and amber eyes sparkling. "Welcome to the 104th Street Diner! I'm Sasha, and I'll be your server today!" She handed him a laminated menu, smiling widely. "Can I get you started with something to drink? Coffee?"

"Um… tea would be great," Levi muttered, brain fumbling to make the right words come out. He'd been having a serious moment, damn it.

"What kind would you like? We have green, jasmine, earl gray, and peppermint!" Sasha chirped, pulling out a notepad and pen.

"Uh, earl gray."

"Cream or sugar?"

"Just plain."

"You got it! I'll have that out shortly!" Sasha wrote down his order and scampered back to the kitchens, yelling something along the lines of 'Jean, you drop that potato right now, or so help me!'

Levi scoffed lightly and looked over his menu, absently searching for something that sounded edible. Titan Burger, Maria Melt, the Colossal Shake… _what is with these names?_ He settled on a Corporal's Sandwich (even though he'd already had a sandwich that day) with a side of fries and waited for Sasha to return with his tea. As he waited, he contemplated the conversation he'd had on the phone before Hanji appeared that morning. He'd called in a favor from Gerger, a taciturn contact from Levi's gang days, who'd given him the contact information for another source, whom Levi was preparing to call in order to cash in a few favors.

After Levi's visit with Erwin the previous day, Levi had decided to finally move from his static position in the universe, moving forward to something else. He decided to wait on telling Erwin about it, until the whole thing panned out.

Sasha reappeared in front of him. "Here's your tea, sir!" she gently set down a china cup and saucer in front of him on the table. "Have you decided on your order?"

Levi cleared his throat. "Yeah. I'll take the Corporal's Sandwich," seriously, who in the hell named these menu items? "and a side of fries."

"Got it." Sasha quickly jotted down Levi's order. "Is that all for you today, sir?"

"Yeah, that's it." He handed his menu over to the girl and pulled his tea closer.

"We'll have that out for you shortly!"

Before Levi could say a word, Sasha had sped over to the front of the diner and vaulted over the counter straight into the kitchen. There was a yelp and a startled, 'Sasha, stop doing that!' and a returning 'try and stop me, Jean!'

Levi snorted softly in amusement and made a vague mental note to bring Petra here at some point; _she'll probably get a kick out of this place._ He took a sip of his tea, blinking in surprise at how good it was. He'd turned to tea when coffee was no longer an option (in his mind, at least), and found that it was generally weak and watery, but the tea here had a nice robust flavor to it, and Levi found himself thinking that he might drink the tea here more often, even after he got Petra and her coffee back.

As he waited for his sandwich, Levi mentally plotted out all the favors he'd have to call in that day. There had been Gerger, and then there would be Rene, and then Henning. _And that's just today… damn._ He'd be busy, that was for sure. There would be a lot of brushing up from Erwin's textbooks at home (the old ones from his college student days). He hoped that Petra would wake up soon, if only to keep him sane throughout this process.

Eventually, Sasha came back out with his sandwich and fries, setting the plate down in front of him with a wide smile. "Here you go! Let me know if you need anything else! I'll be out with the check in a few minutes, but feel free to stay as long as you like!"

Sasha retreated the kitchens and Levi took a tentative bite of his sandwich, pulling out the toothpick (was that a sword or a box cutter? Honestly). It was good; he took a bite of the fries: also good. He dug into his meal with a renewed vigor, savoring the taste of the spiced turkey meat and dressings. He resolved to come here more often, with or without Petra.

\--

Levi got back to the hospital an hour later; he had taken Sasha up on the offer to stay as long as he liked, taking advantage of the quiet atmosphere to call Rene; she'd been surprised to hear from him, but honored her word and cashed in the favor she owed to him from an incident several years back. Levi would have to talk to Henning later that day, and that's where the trouble would be. Hanji was gone when he got there, but she'd left a note on the bedside table next to the vase of fresh flowers she'd brought that morning.

He grumbled as he picked it up, disgruntled that she'd left Petra on her own. On the other hand, he'd stormed out without a second glance and without telling Hanji when he'd be back. _Hey grump-a-saurus! I had to leave to get to a lecture at the university, and since SOMEONE didn't tell me when he'd be back, I had to leave Petra-baby all by herself (poor thing!) Stop being grumpy and give Petra some love; she's almost awake, I can FEEL it! –Hanji_

Levi rolled his eyes at Hanji's antics; the woman was insane, and everyone knew it. He sunk back into his chair and forewent picking up his book in favor of running a hand through Petra's hair. He had never felt the urge to do so when she was awake, but ever since she was admitted to the hospital, he'd started doing it. It was more therapeutic than he had anticipated, and once he started, he didn't really want to stop.

He settled his gaze on her face; the bruises had faded to a sickly yellow, and the cut in her lip had mostly sealed up. The nurses had been keeping her clean, which included washing her hair (which Levi was immensely grateful for), and she looked healthier than she probably was. With a soft sigh, Levi withdrew his hand and grabbed his book, losing himself in the pages.

He couldn't focus for long (damn those stupid machines and their stupid beeping), and after an hour or so of reading, he set down his book and started pacing the small room, stretching his legs. Visiting hours were nearly over, with only an hour and a half left. The nurses were kind to him and knew him (or at least his name and face) by now, but that didn't mean they were lenient about the hours. He knew full well that they would throw him out on his ass if he refused to leave (that may or may not have been partially based on experience).

He growled in irritation as the machines continued to beep; he could usually drown out the sound, he didn't know why now was any different—

He froze—the rhythm. It was different.

Levi leaned over the bed, eyes scanning the monitors hooked up to her chest and arms. He'd memorized the numbers displayed on them (or at least the average parameters), and these numbers were different. Her blood pressure was slightly higher, her pulse had sped up minutely (which was the beeping that had distracted him), and her blood-ox looked different as well. His eyes snapped to Petra's face—for five days, her expression had remained unchanged; at peace and unconcerned with the trouble she had been causing him. When he scrutinized her expression, he could make out a furrow in her brows that hadn't been there before, a slight twitching under her eyelids. He hardly dared to breathe as he took a tentative hold of her hand, which had remained limp for the entirety of her stay. He squeezed. Come on. One squeeze. Something. Anything.

She squeezed back.

It was barely there—if Levi hadn't been concentrating intensely on their clasped hands, he might not have noticed it. But he did, and he slammed a fist on the nurse call button, setting off an alarm down the hall at the nurses' station.

There was a scuffle and the nurse on duty came bustling down the hallway to Petra's room, opening the door. "Is there something—"

"She's waking up," Levi interrupted her, not daring to look away from Petra's face.

"Oh my!" The nurse exclaimed. "I'll fetch the doctor!"

Levi hardly dared to breathe as the nurse ran back to the station, her heels clacking alarmingly on the linoleum flooring.

He licked his lips, mouth suddenly dry. "Petra?" he asked quietly, letting just a touch of hope into his voice. "Petra, can you hear me? I need you to open your eyes, okay?" _One miracle, just this once._

Petra's eyes scrunched, and the beeping increased its pace. After what seemed like an eternity, her eyes opened. Just a sliver at first, then they closed again; then opened just a bit wider. When they were finally open, Levi let out a massive huff of air, feeling like he'd just been hit in the chest. Petra's amber eyes slowly found her way over to Levi's ice blue ones. Please still be there, Levi prayed. Please be in there still, Petra.

"Petra?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper. In the back of his mind, he registered the doctor entering the room with the nurse; they both froze in the entryway, waiting for Petra to respond to Levi's queries.

Petra blinked slowly, her eyes still on Levi's; his grasp on her hand tightened.

"…Levi."

It was barely a whisper, her voice rough with disuse; to Levi, it was the world.

He huffed out a laugh, his throat closing up as his eyes burned. He brought her hand to his forehead, clasped in both of his shaking hands. "Hey," he laughed, blinking back tears. "Welcome back."

She smiled. "Didn't know… I was gone…"

"Yeah." He swallowed thickly. "You're back now though." He had to pause, pursing his lips and blinking rapidly. "That's what matters."

Petra smiled at him again, and Levi could feel the pieces of home sliding smoothly into place again.


	15. In Which Levi is Home

Chapter 14

_"Cause you were all of my dreams come true, and I just wish you knew."_

\--

Once Petra had fallen asleep again after the doctor examined her (pronouncing that there didn't appear to be any damage, which was remarkable, and really Levi couldn't care less at that point what the doctor had to say), Levi called around, letting everyone know the good news. Hanji, Emily, Erd, Gunter and Auruo had rushed to the hospital, skipping class (with the okay from Erwin) to see Petra. She woke up briefly when everyone came running into her room, despite the protests (all ignored) from the nurse down the hall.

Once everyone saw that she was actually awake, the mood in the room lifted right through the roof, with everyone laughing and hugging Petra, who seemed a little overwhelmed but amused and happy all the same. They all left shortly after at the request (order) of Petra's doctor (who the nurse had paged for backup), but everyone promised to visit again the following day for lunch.

Levi went home feeling lighter than he had in weeks. Erwin was still at work, so he took the opportunity to make the last of his calls and then retreat to his room for the night with Erwin's old college textbooks.

\--

Over a week had passed since Petra woke, and it was a few days from her release date from the hospital. Levi had become a rare visitor, much to the confusion of everybody else. Hanji grilled Erwin for information, but all he knew was that Levi had started reading more than he ever had and only emerged from his room for meals and bathroom breaks, with the exception being four days after Petra woke up, when Levi had disappeared for the afternoon. Erwin had barely noticed his absence, and wouldn't have if Levi hadn't walked in the front door during dinner, tossed his helmet on the couch and gone straight to bed, looking absolutely exhausted.

"He doesn't even seem to notice I'm around," Erwin told Hanji over coffee the day after. Hanji had come by his office to drag him over to Starbucks and wouldn't take no for an answer. Erwin, who had been grading papers all day, didn't put up much a fight. "I don't really mind if he's out and about—it's a nice change, actually—I just don't know why." Levi himself hadn't answered any inquiries, and seemed to be perpetually glued to his phone and books; Erwin could hear him talking on the phone through Levi's bedroom door whenever he walked past; Levi rarely talked to anyone, to talk that much was highly unusual.

Nine days after Petra woke up, Levi stormed into Erwin's office in the middle of a conference call with the dean, threw a manila envelope straight at Erwin's face, told him "how's that for wasted potential?!" and ran out. Erwin could only blink in shock after him, the envelope sitting in his lap. He was shocked less at the paper to the face and more at the look of fire and life in Levi's eyes that he hadn't seen in years.

Levi made it to the hospital in record time, jumping off his motorcycle and sprinting all the way to Petra's room, his brain running rampant with thoughts of all of the possibilities as he went.

When he made it to Petra's room, he threw open the door, startling her out of her thoughts. "Gah!" she yelled, clutching at her chest, eyes wide. "God, Levi! You scared the—"

He didn't wait for her to finish, instead pulling up a chair, tossing his helmet on the floor, and grabbing her hands in his, staring intently into her eyes. Petra reeled back at the brightness in them, the life. Levi always looked so bored, so unimpressed with everything and everyone. In that moment, it seemed like his focus was all in the moment.

"Petra."

"Yeeeees?" She was a little taken aback, not quite knowing what to do but humor him; she leaned back a little bit in her bed.

"I figured it out." He said; there was such weight behind his words that Petra stopped her apprehensive retreat and listened.

"Figured what out?"

"What I'm doing." He clarified.

"What you're… is this about that fight you had with Erwin the other day, er, whenever it was…"

"Kind of," he said impatiently. "Look. Erwin's been hounding me for years to get my shit together and do something. I didn't want to; I'd made it to the point where I had a home, and Erwin, and a job, and a life that I just never thought I'd have. I thought that if I changed anything, I would—I dunno—mess that up, throw off the status quo or something. I don't know what the hell I was thinking!" he shook his head agitatedly. Petra was concerned; she didn't know what was going on, just that it was big.

"Look. When you got hurt…" Levi paused, adjusting in his seat, his expression troubled and irritated; Petra hadn't ever seen him this emotive. "I did a lot of thinking. I knew I considered you a friend." He held up a finger. "That's a big deal, okay? That's serious shit. I don't really have friends, but suddenly I have a shit-ton of friends, and I still don't know what to do with that, but who the fuck cares, that's not important." He grabbed her hands again, staring so intently into her eyes that Petra found it hard to breathe.

"Ever since Erwin took me in, he's been 'home' to me. When we started fighting, I thought I was going to lose that… and then you started giving me your stupid coffee, and getting sick, and making these stupid-ass jokes and inviting me over, and home wasn't just Erwin anymore."

There was a desperate edge to his voice now, and Petra was mesmerized, her heart catching in her throat at Levi's words.

"You're my home just as much as Erwin is." Levi told her with a hint of desperation. "I couldn't lose you, not after finally figuring it out, I just… I realized that if I want to keep up, if I want my home to be Erwin, and you, and Shitty Glasses, and the three stooges and everyone—I needed to move! I needed to do something!

"…I pulled some strings, called in a few favors. I have my GED now—I didn't rig it, just made it so I could get into the test and get my results quick. I've been accepted to the university, I'll be studying law enforcement. It's something I know about, I can change things. And…" he seemed nervous now. "…and with you going into Criminal Justice… it's something that lets me stay by your side… if you want me there."

Tears were streaming down Petra's face, and she had to bring a hand to her mouth to stifle a sob.

"I was… I've lived so much of my life in the dark," Levi said quietly, his hand moving up to gently wipe away Petra's tears and then tenderly tuck her hair behind her ear. "Erwin helped me move through it. But you're the one that was the light at the end of that tunnel. And now that I've found that light, I'm never going back into the dark. Never." He swallowed heavily.

"So I'll be by your side. As long as you like."

Petra wailed, throwing herself into Levi's arms, who held her just as desperately, a few tears managing to leak through his own eyes as he held her. This is home, he thought with so much wonder that he thought his heart might burst. He placed a tentative kiss on the top of her head, making her hold to him even tighter.

_I'm home._


	16. In Which There is Time

Chapter 15

_"Not where the story line ends, my thoughts will echo your name until I see you again. I was so enchanted to meet you—Petra I was so in love with you."_

\--

Petra stretched, reaching her arms high above her head and then wincing when it pulled at her back. She had been out of the hospital for two weeks at that point, but she was still on pain meds occasionally for the ache in her lower back.

She had finally finished her last test, and she had scored an eighty-nine! It had taken long hours of reading, rereading, highlighting, screaming in frustration, and drinking enough coffee to kill a fully-grown rhinoceros. She had spent hours speaking to her professors and begging them to show mercy. They'd been wonderfully understanding of her problems and agreed to work with her, waiving assignments and helping her study for the final.

Her friends had also helped; Auruo, Gunter and Erd had studied with her every day (if not all of them, one or two of them). Emily had showed up at her apartment more than once with dinner for her and Hanji, saving her the trouble of cooking and stressing. Hanji had kept her experiments confined to her bedroom and cleaned up after herself so that the apartment didn't smell like death (literally).

Levi had also been a huge help; she smiled, pulling her coat tighter around her, her breath frosting and melting the snowflakes that fell in front of her face. Levi had been a life-saver, endlessly patient and always telling her to 'just calm the fuck down and study'. He'd been coming by the apartment nearly every day since her discharge from the hospital (and every day during visitor hours in the hospital).

Ever since they'd started dating (following Levi's outburst and confession in the hospital), Levi had stuck pretty close to her. He was also surprisingly cuddly; he'd come up behind her when she was studying on the couch, pick her up (despite her yelps and protests) and set her down in his lap so he could read her texts and notes over her shoulder, hugging her around the waist and correcting her mistakes as she went along. Petra couldn't really complain—she found that cuddling with Levi helped her to calm down and not stress so much about her finals; and he was an incredibly helpful study partner for her criminal justice classes. He knew just as much (if not more) than she did about the subjects, and Petra found herself thinking more than once that he would do extremely well the next semester when he finally started taking classes.

"Are you done?" Petra yelped and spun around.

"Levi!" she yelled, a hand over her frantically beating heart. "Don't do that!"

His face was blank, but Levi was obviously amused, eyebrows slightly raised and lips fighting a smirk. "Maybe you should be a little more aware of your surroundings," he countered, hands in the pockets of his parka.

Petra sighed, and smiled. "Honestly, Levi, what am I going to do with you?"

"The real question," he started, coming over and taking her backpack from her, "is what am I going to do with you. You didn't take your pills this morning."

"Did Hanji tell you—"

"You never wince like that when you do take them. Shitty glasses didn't have to tell me anything, I can see for myself. I told you to take your damn pills when you need to, Petra."

"…Levi, has anyone ever told you that you can be a mother hen? Because you really are."

Levi scoffed, holding Petra's bag out of reach behind him when she tried to grab it back from him. She pouted and tried again, darting behind him, but Levi was quicker than she was, dodging her efforts easily. "Just let me hold the damn bag," he scoffed, grabbing her wrist.

"I don't need you to carry my bag!" she protested. "I can do that much on my own—"

"Oh for crying out loud," Levi muttered, rolling his eyes. He pulled her gently by her shoulders over to himself and kissed her. Petra stilled, falling silent as she melted into it, her free hand falling to Levi's arm instead of reaching for her bag. Along with the cuddling, Petra had learned that Levi had a soft spot for kissing her; he didn't kiss as often as he cuddled, but it was a good way for him to win an argument. Levi pulled back, leaning his forehead against her own. "Are you finished?"

"…I suppose," Petra allowed graciously, subconsciously melted a little bit into her boyfriend's hold.

"Good. How did your test go?"

"Eighty-nine percent!" Petra crowed triumphantly. "I nailed it!"

"Nicely done," Levi praised, threading a hand through her hair. Ever since they'd started dating (even before, in the hospital, according to Hanji), Levi had a new fascination with Petra's hair, always running his hands through it and playing with it. At first, Petra had been so self-conscious that she was constantly worried about washing her hair, but once she'd gotten used to it, she started to relax and just enjoy the attention.

"To celebrate," Levi started, unwinding his arms and leading her away by the hand, "we're going out tonight."

"But I promised Hanji we'd celebrate!" Petra protested weakly. "She was pretty insistent!"

"Shitty Glasses can deal," Levi countered, pulling her over to his bike, which was parked on the street outside of the library. He grabbed his spare helmet and jammed it on Petra's head, adjusting the straps despite her protests that she could do it herself. Once Petra had gotten out of the hospital, Levi had bought a spare helmet just for her so that they would both be protected when Levi drove. _He really is a mother hen,_ Petra thought fondly as they both mounted the bike, Petra winding her arms around Levi's waist and resting her chin on his shoulder.

"Alright then where are we going?" she asked, running with the new plan. Levi and Hanji argued constantly, but they were never genuinely mad at each other, so Petra just played along for the most part. "Pixis Pizza? Pixis himself agreed to give us a discount next time we come in, he's pretty fond of us."

"He's also perpetually drunk and plays nothing but Stevie Nicks," Levi countered. Petra had no counter-argument for that; it was entirely true.

"Okay, how about 104? Sasha says that they're going to start serving a new sandwich this week."

"Those kids are crazy—the last thing I want to deal with tonight is Jaeger's crazy shit."

"But Eren is so cute!"

"What?!"

"He's adorable, I just want to… I don't know, adopt him or something. Take him home and feed him cookies."

"NO, absolutely NOT."

"I wasn't really considering it—"

"NO."

She sighed. "Okay, fine. Um… how about Indian food? That Yumi Curry place is really good!"

"Yeah, and the waitress is bat shit crazy."

"Ymir? She's not so bad! She's just really protective of Krista—"

"Like I said, crazy."

"Ugh!" Petra groaned. "Fine! Apparently we're not going to any of the usual places."

"Just shut up and hold on, we'll be there in a minute."

Petra pouted. "Fine." She stopped focusing on talking to Levi and instead started concentrated on where they were driving. _We're near the Legion,_ she thought with surprise. They never really went to the Legion—it was more expensive than the other places that they frequented. _I guess this is a special-ish occasion, but this seems a little much._

They pulled up to the front of the restaurant, parking down the street, as the entire parking lot was full. This was a bit of a surprise; it was Wednesday evening, not usually a very popular day to go out. Levi parked and Petra hopped off of the bike and pulled her helmet off, Levi following suit. He grabbed her helmet and put it next to his in the compartment on the back of the bike. He had started keeping the compartment on the bike once they started using both helmets; he usually kept it at home, since he didn't like having the extra bulk on the bike. _He's becoming domesticated awfully fast,_ Petra thought with amusement.

"Alright," Levi said once everything was secured. "Let's get going." He grabbed Petra's hand and led her into the restaurant. Instead of waiting for the waitress to seat them, Levi just nodded to the hostess (who smiled and nodded right back at him) and led Petra through the restaurant to the banquet room in the back.

"Levi?" Petra asked, thoroughly confused. "Why are you—"

Her words were cut off as Levi threw open the door to the event room and dragged her through.

"Congratulations!" Petra yelped in surprise, eyes going wide.

"What the hell is this?!" She asked, a hand over her heart.

Levi scoffed. "The hell does it look like? It's a stupid-ass party. They insisted."

Hanji and her assistant Moblit, Erwin, Auruo, Erd, Gunter, Emily, Petra's father, Auruo's new girlfriend Ilse; the kids from the 104th Street Diner that Petra had become friends with, Sasha, Jean, Eren, Armin, Mikasa and Connie—even Mike Zacharius and his girlfriend Nanaba. Everyone was there, smiles on their faces and drinks in hand.

Levi led her into the waiting crowd of friends and family, grabbing a drink for her (a Diet Coke) and then for himself (a bottle of some kind of soda; Levi was always cautious about not drinking when he drove, not in any amount) on the way. When they reached the group, Erd called everyone to order, standing on a chair and holding up his bottle of beer.

"Alright, everybody listen up!" he boomed, the chatter dying down; Hanji snuck over to Petra and wrapped her arms around the smaller girl from behind, resting her head on top of Petra's. "We're here to celebrate Petra's recovery and passing her finals—you just took your last one, right?" he asked Petra, who nodded. "How did it go?"

"Eighty-nine percent," she bragged with a smile.

A cheer went up as everyone raised their glasses. Petra blushed a little and her smile widened.

"That's our girl!" Erd cheered. "So, to Petra!" he raised his bottle. "Congratulations!"

"Congratulations!" the room bellowed, toasting her.

Petra laughed in delight, tearing up. There were hugs and laughter all around, as well as more food and drink. The staff from the Legion kept the food well-stocked and the soda and alcohol flowing. They also brought out several fresh pots of coffee, which Petra started to eye. Levi noticed immediately (he was a surprisingly attentive boyfriend) and led Petra over to a free chair, sitting her down and taking her empty Diet Coke can from her to throw away. "I'll grab you a coffee," he said. "Be right back. Don't get into any trouble while I'm gone," he added sternly.

Petra blinked innocently at him. "Trouble? Me?"

Levi muttered darkly as he walked away, grumbling things like 'could get into trouble in a paper bag with nothing but a book and a box of Kleenex.'

He reached the table and started preparing Petra's coffee (two cream, three sugars). He was fine without coffee; he'd been forever spoiled by Petra's home brew and was never satisfied with anything else.

"I see she still takes her coffee the same; that's a relief! Some things haven't changed."

Levi's eyes snapped up, relaxing when they met Peter Ral's. "Yeah; she's like clockwork, I don't think this'll ever change." He straightened up, setting down the coffee to talk to the older man. Peter had been delayed coming out to see Petra—he had fallen and dislocated his hip while he's been helping a neighbor rake he leaves in her front yard. He had been admitted to the small hospital near his home at around the same time that Petra had been rushed into surgery. When he found out, he had wanted to leave (hip be damned) and come and see her, but he wasn't able to move at the time and had come out a day or two after Petra had woken up, still in pain but insistent on seeing his daughter.

They hadn't really had a chance to talk when he arrived; Levi was busy with the paperwork needed for him to start attending classes winter semester (and working within the Criminal Justice department to ensure that Petra's professors would cooperate with her efforts to pass her classes—he made it very clear that if they didn't, not even God could help them when Levi came to call). After that, it was just a matter of missing each other during visiting hours. He had talked to him briefly in the cafeteria as Levi was grabbing some tea before heading up to see Petra and Peter was grabbing a coffee before leaving after seeing his daughter. Other than that, they hadn't interacted at all.

"We haven't really talked, have we?" Peter chuckled.

"No, we haven't."

"I've heard quite a lot about you though, Levi."

Levi blinked in surprise. "…Really?"

Peter chuckled. "Petra emails me every week to let me know how she's doing; you've been in most of her emails this semester. And Hanji and Auruo keep me up to date too, of course."

This was news to Levi; he knew that Petra talked with her father on a regular basis, that they had a close relationship; but he had no idea that they'd talked about him, not before they started dating, at least.

"Do I dare ask what she's said?" Levi asked with a hint of trepidation.

Peter just laughed; "sorry, father-daughter confidentiality. But you know," his eyes softened and he stared into his coffee. "I think she's got a lot of time ahead of her, and I don't want her to rush anything." He looked up into Levi's eyes. "She thinks very highly of you, Levi. You two obviously care for each other, and I think that—in time—you'll make each other even happier." He clapped a hand on Levi's shoulder. "So please look after my daughter, Levi."

Levi nodded solemnly. "I will. I'll make her happy, I'll keep her safe—I promise."

Peter smiled even wider. "I don't doubt it." He picked up his coffee and started walking away to one of the other tables in the room. "Consider this an invitation to spend Christmas with us," he called over his shoulder. "Hanji will be there as well, so you and Professor Smith are welcome to join us for the holidays!"

Levi stood stock still, eyes wide with surprise. A deep laugh sounded behind him, followed by Erwin's hand clapping down on his shoulder. "Didn't expect him to be so accepting, did you?"

"Not really, no…"

"Yeah; he's a good guy. Smart, too."

Levi raised a thin black eyebrow. "Is that a nerd crush I hear?"

Erwin snorted. "And here I thought human kindness had rendered you speechless," he quipped, taking a sip of his own coffee, straight black.

"Yeah, that'll be the day," Levi muttered dryly. "…He invited both of us over for Christmas," he revealed. "Said Shitty Glasses will be there and that we should both come."

"Oh really?" Erwin looked rather pleased. "I say we take him up on his offer; Christmas at our place is hardly something to write home about, and it would be nice to spend the holidays with good friends like that."

Levi furrowed his brow. "'Good friends'?" he repeated. "You hardly know Petra, let alone her fath—wait." A wicked grin found a willing home on Levi's face. "This is about Shitty Glasses, isn't it Erwin?"

Erwin looked a little flustered. "Hanji? She has nothing to do with—"

"The two of you are spending an awful lot of time together," Levi mused, relishing Erwin's flustered denials. "Careful, now. It starts out with coffee, sweet talk, late nights of sweet nothings. Next thing you know she'll be dissecting you in your sleep." Levi took perhaps too much pleasure in the semi-disturbed look on Erwin's face.

"I think you're getting a little ahead of yourself, Levi."

"Just a little, huh? So there is something."

"No, there—ugh." Erwin rolled his eyes, and then smiled softly at Levi.

"…What?" Levi asked, surprised in the abrupt change in Erwin's demeanor.

Erwin shook his head. "Nothing. Look; these have been a tough few weeks, for all of us. And I just wanted to say… I just wanted to say that I'm proud of you Levi." Erwin stared into Levi's eyes, his face serious. "You've stepped up beyond anything I thought, and you've done so well for yourself. You have a job, a scholarship, friends, a girlfriend, plans for the future—you have everything I ever wanted for you, Levi, and you did it all on your own. I am so damn proud of you."

Levi was shocked—Erwin's voice was becoming choked and he looked suspiciously bright-eyed. Erwin had never been one to get emotional, but it seemed like tonight was the night of surprises.

Erwin nodded, composing himself. "Levi, you're a completely different person than the boy who agreed to feed information to the police, from the kid on the streets who didn't give a damn about the human race. You've come so far. I just," he coughed self-consciously, "wanted to get that out of my system." He smiled once more at Levi, clapped his shoulder, and wandered off to sit with Hanji and Moblit (who was trying desperately to keep Hanji from going back for more beer, as she had obviously had more than enough).

After yet another bombshell dropped on him, Levi gathered up Petra's coffee (somehow it was still hot; his conversations must not have taken as long as he felt they had) and made his way back to Petra's side.

"Hey there!" she greeted him with a smile, thanking him softly for the coffee. He sat down next to her, pulling her close to his side and making her squeak in surprise. She laughed and took a drink. They sat in silence for a few beats before Petra spoke. "I'm sorry about my dad," she started softly, staring up at Levi apologetically through her lashes. "I hope he wasn't too overbearing; he can get really overprotective and crazy and—"

"He invited Erwin and I over for Christmas."

"Like I said, he's… he what?"

"He invited us over for Christmas break, to your house, for the holidays."

"…He's never done that." Petra said blankly. "Wow. You must've made one helluva first impression, Levi."

"Yeah, I guess so."

Petra laughed. "Well, I guess that's one way of going about the 'meet the parents' stage, huh?"

Levi snorted, raising his eyebrows. "Pushing this relationship a little fast, aren't you Petra?"

She blushed. "I am not! I didn't do anything, it was all—"

"Relax, I'm kidding," Levi reassured her, pulling her into his lap and nuzzling into her neck. He was feeling surprisingly affectionate (in public no less), and just felt like cuddling with his girlfriend. Petra's blush deepened, but she certainly didn't complain.

"Well, you're getting awfully frisky, Levi. One might thing you were planning something improper," Petra quipped, sniffing haughtily and drinking her coffee.

Levi laughed, deep and unrestrained. "Maybe I am," he teased, resting his forehead on Petra's shoulder. He smiled gently and breathed in.

"It can wait, though. We've got time."

Petra smiled, setting down her coffee and leaning back into Levi's hold, causing him to wind his arms more securely around her waist, sighing heavily and relaxing even further; it was rare to see Levi so happy and unrestrained, and Petra loved every moment of it. "Yeah," she agreed happily, gazing around at her friends and family. "You're right. We have all the time in the world."

\--

_"Please don't be in love with someone else, please don't have somebody waiting on you. I'll spend my whole life wondering if you knew. This night is flawless, don't you let it go. I'm wonderstruck. Petra, I'll spend my whole life—I was enchanted to meet you too."_

_"I was never in love with someone else. I never had somebody waiting on me. Cause you were all of my dreams come true, and I just you knew, Petra I was so in love with you."_


End file.
